


m 



-$°ioo.c- 

THE 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION 



EXERCISES AND SELECTIONS 

SYSTEMATICALLY ARRANGED FOR ACQUIRING 

®Ij£ %xi of §Uatritxg unh Spiking, 

By S. S. HAMILL, A.M., 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND ELOCUTION, ILLINOIS WESLEYAN 
UNIVERSITY, BLOOMINGTON, ILL. 






^J 



0^°' 



NEW YORK: 
NELSON & PHILLIPS. 

CINCINNATI : HITCHCOCK & WALDEN. 
l8/2. 



TlfH" 

\ 

\ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 

NELSON & PHILLIPS, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 






PREFACE 



In the belief that Elocution should be studied as a 
science as. well as practiced as an art, the following 
pages are presented to the public. 

The design of the work is to unfold the principles of 
Elocution, to show their application to the different 
forms of thought and emotion, to classify selections 
under their appropriate styles, and, in connection there- 
with, to furnish sufficient exercises for the cultivation of 
the articulation, the tones of the voice, and the graces of 
manner. 

That Elocution is a science, that there are certain 
established principles observed by all good speakers and 
violated by all bad ones, none will deny who have care- 
fully investigated the subject. To understand and to 
practically illustrate these principles should be the 
prominent object of the student of Elocution. 

Without this all cultivation of the voice and mauner 
will be of little avail. Instances are numerous of stu- 
dents who have carefully and diligently practiced the 
exercises for the cultivation of the voice and manner, so 
abundant in the various works on Elocution, and have 
derived therefrom all the advantages they propose, and 
yet good readers and speakers are very rare. 



O PKEFACE. 

A radical defect exists somewhere, or, contrary to all 
experience and testimony, the ability to read and speak 
well is not an acquirement. An experience of nearly 
twenty years as a teacher in this department has con- 
vinced the author that the study of Elocution usually 
ceases where it really should begin, namely, with the 
adaptation of the tones of the voice and the expression 
of countenance to the sentiment uttered. 

To correct in some degree this defect, and to awaken 
a deeper interest in the subject of Elocution, is the hope 
of the author in the present publication. 

When Elocution shall be studied in our colleges. and 
universities as a science, its principles known and prac- 
ticed, then, and not till then, will good speaking be the 
rule, and not, as now, the rare exception. 

S. S. H. 

Illinois Wesleyan University, 
Bloomington, Jan. 1, 18 l 72. 



CONTENTS 



Pagb 

Elocution 19 

Tabular View of the Science of Elocution 20 

PART I. 

EXPRESSION. 
CHAPTER I. 

ARTICULATION. 

Chart of Elementary Sounds 22 

Position of Body 23 

Suggestions 23 

Exercises in Long Vocals 24 

11 Short Vocals 21 

" Diphthongs 30 

" Sub-Vocals 31 

" Aspirates 3f 

" Difficult Combinations 41 

CHAPTER n. 

respiration. 

Exercises in Breathing 48 

" Effusive Vocal Breathing 49 

Expulsive Vocal Breathing 49 

" Explosive Vocal Breathing 49 

CHAPTER III. 

VOICE. 

Attributes of Voice 50 

Form of Voice 51 

Effusive Form 51 

Exercises in Effusive Form 52 

Application of Effusive Form 52 



10 CONTENTS. 

Page 

Illustrations of Effusive Form 53 

Advantages of Effusive 'Form - 53 

Expulsive Form 54 

Exercises in Expulsive Form 54 

Application of the Expulsive 54 

Illustrations of Expulsive Form 55 

Advantages of Expulsive Form 57 

Explosive Form 57 

Exercises in Explosive Form 58 

Application of Explosive Form 58 

Examples of Explosive Form 59 

Advantages of Explosive Form 59 

Quality of Voice 60 

Pure Tone 61 

Exercises in Pure Tone, Effusive Form 62 

Application of Pure Tone, Effusive Form 62 

Examples of Pure Tone, Effusive Form , 62 

Exercises in Pure Tone, Expulsive Form 63 

Application of Pure Tone, Expulsive Form 64 

Examples of Pure Tone, Expulsive Form 64 

Exercises in Pure Tone, Explosive Form 65 

Application of Pure Tone, Explosive Form 65 

Advantages of Pure Tone 66 

Orotund 66 

Exercises jn Orotund, Effusive Form 67 

Application of Orotund, Effusive Form 68 

Examples of Orotund, Effusive Form 68 

Exercises in Orotund, Expulsive Form , 69 

Application of Orotund, Expulsive Form 69 

Examples of Orotund, Expulsive Form 69 

Exercises in Orotund, Explosive Form 71 

Application of Orotund, Explosive Form 72 

Examples of Orotund, Explosive Form 72 

Advantages of Orotund k 73 

Aspirate 74 

Exercises in Aspirate, Effusive Form 74 

Application of Aspirate, Effusive Form 75 

Examples of Aspirate, Effusive Form 75 

Exercises in Aspirate, Expulsive Form 76 

Application of Aspirate, Expulsive Form 76 

Examples of Aspirate, Expulsive Form 77 

Exercises in Aspirate, Explosive Form 78 

Application of Aspirate, Explosive Form. 78 

Examples of Aspirate, Explosive Form 78 

Advantages of Aspirate 78 

Pectoral 79 

Exercises in Pectoral, Effusive Form 79 

Application of Pectoral, Effusive Form 79 

Examples of Pectoral, Effusive Form 79 

Exercises in Pectoral, Expulsive Form 81 



CONTENTS. 11 

Page 

Application of Pectoral, Expulsive Form 81 

Examples of Pectoral, Expulsive Eorm 81 

Exercises in Pectoral, Explosive Eorm 83 

Application of Pectoral, Explosive Eorm 83 

Examples of Pectoral, Explosive Eorm 83 

Advantages of Pectoral 84 

Guttural 84 

Exercises in Guttural, Effusive Form 84 

Application of Guttural, Effusive Form 85 

Examples of Guttural, Effusive Form . .• 85 

Exercises in Guttural, Expulsive Form 85 

Application of Guttural, Expulsive Form 85 

Examples of Guttural, Expulsive Form 86 

Application of Guttural, Explosive Form 86 

Examples of Guttural, Explosive Form 86 

Advantages of Guttural 86 

Oral 87 

Application of Oral 87 

Examples of Oral 87 

Advantages of Oral 88 

Nasal 88 

Force 89 

Divisions of Force 90 

Exercises in Force 90 

Subdued Force — Application of 91 

Examples of Subdued Force 91 

Moderate Force — Application of 92 

Examples of Moderate Force 92 

Energetic Force — Application of 95 

Examples of Energetic Force 95 

Impassioned Force — Application of 97 

Examples of Impassioned Force 97 

Advantages of Force 99 

Stress 99 

Eadical Stress 100 

Exercises in Eadical Stress 100 

Application of Eadical Stress 100 

Examples of Eadical Stress 101 

Advantages of Eadical Stress 102 

Median Stress 103 

Exercises in Median Stress 103 

Application of Median Stress 103 

Examples in Median Stress , 104 

Advantages of Median Stress 106 

Final Stress 106 

Exercise in Final Stress 106 

Application of Final Stress 106 

Examples in Final Stress 107 

Advantages of Final Stress 108 

Compound Stress ; 109 



12 CONTENTS. 

Page 

Exercises in Compound Stress 109 

Application op Compound Stress 109 

Examples in Compound Stress 110 

Advantages op Compound Stress 110 

Thorough Stress 110 

Exercises in Thorough Stress Ill 

Application op Thorough Stress Ill 

Examples op Thorough Stress Ill 

Advantages op Thorough Stress 112 

Intermittent Stress 113 

Exercises in Intermittent Stress ] 13 

Application op Intermittent Stress * 113 

Examples in Intermittent Stress 114 

Advantages op Intermittent Stress 114 

Pitch 115 

Divisions op Pitch 116 

Exercises in Pitch lit 

Middle Pitch — Application op 118 

Examples op Middle Pitch 118 

Low Pitch — Application op 120 

Examples of Low Pitch 120 

High Pitch — Application op 121 

Examples op High Pitch 121 

Very Low Pitch — Application op 123 

Examples of Very Low Pitch 123 

Very High Pitch — Application of 125 

Examples of Very High Pitch 125 

Advantages of Pitch 126 

Movement 127 

Divisions of Movement 12? 

Exercises in Movement 127 

Moderate Movement — Application of 128 

Examples of Moderate Movement 128 

Slow Movement — Application op 130 

. Examples op Slow Movement 130 

Very Slow Movement — Application of 131 

Examples op Very Slow Movement 132 

Rapid Movement — Application of 133 

Examples in Rapid Movement 133 

Very Rapid Movement — Application of 134 

Examples in Very Rapid Movement 135 

Advantages op Movement 136 

Accidents op Voice 138 

Quantity 138 

Long Quantity 139 

Exercises in Long Quantity 139 

Application of Long Quantity 139 

Examples of Long Quantity 139 

Short Quantity 141 

Exercises in Short Quantity .• 141 



HAMIIL'S SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



TESTIMONIALS. 

From Rev. O. N. Hartshorn, LL.D., President of Mount Union 



Feeling a deep interest in the important subject of Elocution, and 
being personalty acquainted with Professor S. S. Hamill, a scholar and 
gentleman of high standing, I take the liberty to introduce him to the 
favorable consideration of all persons interested in this too much neglect- 
ed branch of education. Mr. Hamill is the most accomplished, thorough, 
and systematic teacher of Elocution that I have ever met. He has 
taught some five classes, composed of students and professors of Mount 
Union College, with satisfactory results. I attended three of these 
classes with great profit and pleasure to myself. While Mr. Hamill 
has been here he has arranged a simple diagram, which, in my judg- 
ment, gives in one view to the eye an accurate and comprehensive 
outline of each style of utterance. I have examined it carefully, and 
think it highly adapted in its plan and execution to illustrate, when 
explained by him, that most difficult and important, but too much 
neglected, department of education, the various qualities, forms, stress, 
pitch, and movement of voice, to be exemplified in the utterance of 
each style of sentiment. O. N. Hartshorn. 

Sept. 9, 1861. 

FromReY. D. A. Wallace, D.D., LL.D., President of Monmouth Col- 
lege, Monmouth, III. 
I have known Professor S. S. Hamill as an instructor in Elocution 
for nearly fifteen years. He has conducted many classes in Monmouth 
College with unusual success. From my knowledge of his manu- 
script, his system of Elocution and methods of instruction, I expect 
that his book will at once take a very prominent place among text- 
books in Elocution. I shall not be surprised to learn that it has su- 
perseded all others. . David A. Wallace. 

From Eev. H. P. Tappan, D.D., LL.D., Chancellor of Michigan 
University. 

It affords me much pleasure to commend Mr. S. S. Hamill to Col- 
leges and Schools as a teacher of Elocution. Mr. Hamill is himself an 
excellent elocutionist, but this would be of small account if he merely 
taught his pupils to imitate his own manner and tones. His worth as 
an instructor in this very important, but too much neglected, branch 



2 HAMILL'S SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

consists in the inculcation of correct principles of Elocution, and in 
subjecting his pupils to a proper drill of the voice. His aim is to cor- 
rect bad babits of pronunciation and intonation, and to bring out the 
natural power and compass of the human voice. He is, besides, very 
faithful and diligent, and spares no pains to accomplish his object. 
Mr. Hamill succeeds also in winning the esteem and respect of bis 
pupils by his gentlemanly bearing. He has formed voluntary classes 
in this institution for two successive seasons, and has given great sat- 
isfaction. Henry P. Tappan. 
Dec. 7, 1860. 

From Andrew D. White, LL.D., President of Cornell University, 
late Professor of History and English Literature, Michigan University. 

University oe Michigan, Ann Arbor, Oct. 8, 1860. 
Mr. S. S. Hamill has taught large Elocution classes in this institution, 
and has given perfect satisfaction. 

His exercises for developing the voice, and inculcating its right tone, 
cannot, I think, be surpassed. A. D. White. 

From William Russell, Professor of Elocution, Lancaster, Mass., 
author of Vocal Culture, Pulpit Elocution, etc., etc. 

Professor Hamill— Dear Sir : Your favor of the ninth gave me 
the rare pleasure of perceiving that Dr. Rush's Philosophy of the 
Voice, as exemplified in my manual of Orthophony, (or Vocal Culture,) 
has led a"n intelligent and accomplished teacher of Elocution to prose- 
cute for himself the analysis of vocal expression into its interesting and 
instructive details. The closeness of your investigations must have 
been a source of great pleasure, as well as conscious intellectual disci- 
pline, to yourself, and I have no doubt that it will greatly enhance the 
benefit of your instructions to others. . . . Let me assure you that the 
ingenuity and thoroughness of your scheme gives me peculiar pleasure, 
from the attempt to give philosophical completeness to a tabular view 
of the phenomena of vocal expression. Dr. Rush's exhaustive analy- 
sis of the facts of the human voice has rendered it practicable and easy 
for teachers who are so disposed to be philosophically comprehensive, 
as well as scientifically exact, in their plan and method of instruction 
in this wide field of useful and interesting knowledge. All we have to 
do is to follow in detail and exemplification his five primary principles 
of Force, Pitch, Time, Quality, and Stress. 

Cordially yours, William Russell. 

From Datus C. Brooks, Adjunct Professor of Bhetoric and English 
Literature, University of Michigan. 
Mr. S. S. Hamill has during the past year given lessons in Elocution 
in this University, with the consent and warm approbation of the 
faculty. The members of the faculty interested particularly in this 
object, and myself among the number, have been desirous of securing 



HAMILL'S SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 6 

Mr. Hamill's services permanently here, but on account of greatly in- 
creased expenses in other directions that has been impossible. The 
exercises have therefore been voluntary on the part of the students. 
Large classes have been formed, composed of students and profes- 
sional men in the city, and the best satisfaction has been expressed by 
all. I have both attended his classes as an observer and been myself 
under his instruction. Speaking, therefore, on positive grounds, I 
should say that among his most useful qualities as a teacher are untir- 
ing patience and energy, readiness and discrimination in criticism, 
and that knowledge of theory and practical skill combined, which ren- 
der one capable both of giving specific directions and of furnishing 
correct, models for the student to follow. We have had other teachers 
of Elocution in this University, but none so successful in his instruc- 
tions. Eegretting that we cannot retain Mr. Hamill permanently here, 
he has my most cordial commendation and warmest wishes for his 
success in the chosen profession of his life. Datus C. Brooks. 

Dec. 18, 1860. 

From Alexander Campbell, President of Bethany College, Va. 

Having recently had the pleasure of hearing the distinguished Elo- 
cutionist, Mr. S. S. Hamill, deliver himself on the science and the art 
of Elocution, in doing which he so scientifically and also artistically 
exhibited the orator in utterance and in action, I cannot but recom- 
mend him to all those youth who desire to acquire either the theory 
or the practice of this most interesting and useful science and art. 

April 10, 1861. A. Campbell. 



From W. K. Pendleton, Vice-President oj 

To all who are interested in the attractive art of Elocution we take 
pleasure in tendering a very cordial introduction of Mr. Hamill. He 
has made Elocution his special profession, and besides his own very 
high attainments in its practice, is eminently gifted as a teacher of it 
to others. He has given instruction to a number of voluntary classes 
in Bethany College, and with the most marked success. His gentle- 
manly bearing, his accomplished mastery over his subject, his great 
fidelity and energy as a teacher, and, withal, his genuine enthusiasm in 
the noble art of Elocution, make Mr. Hamill a welcome instructor to 
all who take his lessons. 

His method is strictly scientific, and as a teacher he labors to point 
out and exemplify the principles and exercises by which excellence in 
oratorical utterance not only may, but must be reached. We trust that 
Mr. Hamill will be encouraged and sustained in his generous efforts to 
elevate the tone of our Elocution, and that in his hands this much 
neglected and sometimes despised element of a polished education 
may be invested with new interest, and raised to a noble place in the 
courses of our colleges. W. K. Pendleton. 

April 18, 1861. 



4 HAMILL'S SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

From J. Baldwin, A.M., President of North Missouri State Normal 
School. 
Professor S. S. Hamill, one of the ablest teachers of Elocution now 
living, has been secured to give a course of twenty lessons in this im- 
portant branch. 

From the Professors and Students of Washington College, Pa. 

Professor Hamill discusses the subject in a manner highly scientific ; 
his course of lessons is systematically arranged, and eminently com- 
prehensive; and we consider his admirable system of gesticulation 
invaluable to all who would cultivate a graceful and impressive 
delivery. Professors and Students of Washington College. 

Sej>t. 1, 1861. 

From the Bloomington Daily Pantograph, Jan. 12, 1871, 
Professor Hamill has but one rival in the country, James E. Mur- 
doch. 

From the Pittsburgh Daily Gazette. 
Professor Hamill is one of the most accomplished readers of our 
country. 

From the Ohio Educational Journal. 
As a teacher of Elocution, Professor Hamill has no superior in the 
United States. 

From the Mount Pleasant Journal, Oct. 15, 1869. 
An audience was never better entertained than the one which 
assembled in Saunder's Hall on Thursday evening last to hear the dis- 
tinguished Elocutionist, S. S. Hamill. His readings and recitations 
far surpass any thing we ever heard. 

From the Iowa City Republican. 
Professor Hamill is master of his profession, and will interest, in- 
struct, and amuse his audience. 

From the Spirit of the West. 
The exercises in Elocution at the Teachers' Institute of Monroe 
county were conducted by Professor S. S. Hamill, of Illinois Wesleyan 
University, one of the finest teachers of Elocution in the United 
States. His lectures do not for a moment fail to interest, being 
pointed, logical, practical, and so varied that the most idle spectator 
cannot even for a moment forget his presence. 

From the Daily Leader, Jan. 13, 1871. 
Professor Hamill is a very superior actor. We have seen but few 
better ; and we are gl#R to know that the University is so fortunate 
as to have the services of one in every way so capable. 

Thousands of Testimonials might be added to the above. 



CONTENTS. 13 

Page 

Application of Short Quantity 141 

Examples of Short Quantity 141 

Advantages of Quantity 142 

Inflections 144 

Kising- Inflection 144 

Exercises ln Kising Inflection 144 

Application of Rising Inflection of Second ' . . 145 

Examples of Rising Inflection of Second 145 

Application of Rising Inflections of Third and Fifth 145 

Examples of Rising Inflections of Third and Fifth 145 

Application of Rising Inflection of Octave 147 

Examples of Rising Inflection of Octave 147 

Falling Inflection 147 

Exercises in Falling Inflection 148 

Application of Falling Inflection 148 

Examples of Falling Inflections of Second and Third 148 

Examples of Falling Inflections of Third and Fifth 149 

Examples of Falling Inflections of Third, Fifth and Octave 149 

Advantages of Inflection 151 

Circumflex 151 

Application of Circumflex , 152 

Examples of Circumflex „ 152 

Advantages of Circumflex 152 

Cadence 152 

Examples in Cadence 153 

Advantages of Cadence 153 

Pauses 1 54 

Application of Pauses 154 

Examples of Pauses 154 

Emphasis — Kinds of 157 

Emphasis of Force 158 

Examples of Emphasis of Force 159 

Emphasis of Stress. . .*. 159 

Examples of Emphasis of Radical Stress 159 

Examples of Emphasis of Median Stress 159 

Examples of Emphasis of Final Stress 160 

Examples of Emphasis of Compound Stress 160 

Examples of Emphasis of- Thorough Stress 160 

Emphasis of Quality 161 

Example of Emphasis of Aspirate Quality 161 

Example of Emphasis of Pectoral Quality 161 

Example of Emphasis of Guttural Quality 161 

Emphasis of Pitch •. 162 

Examples of Yery High Pitch 162 

Examples of Very Low Pitch 162 

Emphasis of Movement 165 

Examples of Emphasis of Slow Movement 165 

Examples of Emphasis of Rapid Movement 165 

Advantages of Movement 165 

Climax 167 



14 CONTENTS. 

Examples of Climax 167 

Grouping — Advantages of 170 

Illustrations of Grouping . . . . 170 



CHAPTER IV. 

ACTION. 

Positions of Feet 177 

Changes in Position of Feet 180 

Position of Body 180 

Position of Arms in Repose ] 80 

Position of Arms in Gesture 181 

The Hand 182 

Positions of Hand ; 182 

Accompaniments of Gesture 183 

Qualities of Gesture 185 

Adaptation of Gesture , 187 

Significant Gestures 188 

The Eye and Countenance 189 

The Passions 191 

Picture of the Passions 193 



PAET II. 

DEDUCTIO NS. 
CHAPTER I. 

STYLES. 

Diagram of Styles 210 

Explanation 211 

CHAPTER n. 

PATHETIC STYLE. 

Death-Bed. — Thomas Epod. 212 

The Pauper's Death-Bed. — Mrs. Southey 212 

My Mother's Bible. — G. P. Morris 213 

The Old Arm-Chair. — Eliza Cook 214 

The Burial of Arnold. — N. P. Willis 215 

The Last Footfall 211 

Anabel Lee. — Edgar A. Poe 218 

The Bridge of Sighs. — Thomas Hood 219 

The Grave of the Beloved. — Washington Irving 221 



CONTENTS. 15 

CHAPTER m. 

SERIOUS STYLE. 

Page 

Nearer Home. — Phebe Gary 224 

The Heavenly Canaan-. — Watts 225 

In the Other World. — Mrs. E. Beecher Stowe 225 

If We Knew 227 

Forty Tears Ago 228 

The Mountains of Life. — J. G. Clark 230 

The Isle of Long Ago. — B. F. Taylor 231 

God the True Source of Consolation. — Moore 232 

Gratitude. — Addison 232 

Oyer the River. — Miss Priest 233 



CHAPTER IV. 

TRANQUIL STYLE. 

Rain on the Roof. — Goates Kinney 235 

Night.— Shelley 236 

The Light-House. — Moore 236 

Musings. — Amelia 237 

The Rainbow. — Amelia 239 



CHAPTER V. 

GRAVE STYLE. 

Inspiration of the Bible. — Winthrop 241 

Goodness of God . . . ; 242 

Access to God. — James Hamilton 242 

Infidelity Tested 243 

Religion the Only Basis of Society. — W. E. Ghanning 244 

Promises of Religion to the Young. — Alison. 245 



CHAPTER VI. 

DIDACTIC STYLE. 

Cheerfulness 247 

Be Comprehensive 248 

Hamlet's Advice. — Shakspeare 249 

Industry and Eloquence. — Wirt 249 

No Excellence Without Labor. — Wirt ■ 251 

Advice to Young Lawyers. — Judge Story 252 

Modulation. — Lloyd 253 

Don't Run in Debt. — Eliza Gook 254 

Queries 255 



16 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

LIVELY STYLE. 

Page 

Personalities and Uses of a Laugh 257 

Paddle Your Own Canoe. — Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton 258 

I'm With Tou Once Again. — G. P. Morris 260 

A Psalm of Life. — Longfellow 260 

CHAPTER VIII. 

GAY STYLE. 

Spring. — Bryant. 262 

Young Lochinvar. — Scott. 262 

Let Us Try to be Happy 264 

Coquette Punished 264 

Khyme of the Rail. — Saxe 266 

CHAPTER IX. 

JOYOUS STYLE. 

Guneopathy. — Saxe 269 

Mercutio's Humorous Description of Queen Mab. — ShaJcspeare 270 

CHAPTER X. 

SUBLIME STYLE. 

In Memoriam — A. Lincoln. — Mrs. Bugoee 272 

Break ! Break ! Break ! — Tennyson 273 

God. — Derzliavin 274 

God's Pirst Temples. — Bryant 277 

The Closing Year. — Prentice 280 

Morning Hymn to Mont Blanc. — Coleridge 282 

CHAPTER XI. 

ORATORICAL STYLE. 

Reply to Mr. Wickham in Burr's Trial, 1807. — Wirt 285 

Aristocracy. — Robert R. Livingston 286 

General Government and the States. — Alexander Hamilton. . 287 

Patriotic Self-Sacrifice. — Clay 288 

Ambition of a Statesman. — Clay 289 

National Character. — Maxey 290 

Responsibilities of our Republic— Joseph Story 291 

Duty of Literary Men to their Country. — Grimke 291 

American Laborers. — Naylor 293 

Napoleon Bonaparte. — Phillips 294 



CONTENTS. 17 

Page 

Unjust National Acquisition. — Thomas Corwin 296 

Our System of Public Instruction should Distinctly Incul- 
cate a Love op Country. — Newton Bateman 297 

Appeal in Behalf of Ireland. — S. S. Prentiss 299 

Glorious New England. — S. S. Prentiss.. 301 

Speech Before the Virginia Contention of Delegates, 

March, 1775. — Patrick Henry 302 

Supposed Speech of James Otis. — Mrs. L. M. Child 304 

Rienzi's Address to the Romans. — Miss Miiford 306 

CHAPTER Xn. 

OBATORICAL SUBLIME. 

Death of John Quincy Adams. — L. E. Holmes 308 

Death of Alexander Hamilton. — Dr. Nott 309 



CHAPTER XHI. 

IMPASSIONED POETIC STYLE, 

Bate of the Bowl 311 

The American Flag. — J. R. Drake 312 

The Rescue of Chicago. — H. M. Look 314 

Sheridan's Ride. — T. Buchanan Read 316 

CHAPTER XTV. 

SHOUTING STYLE. 

From Charge of Light Brigade. — Tennyson 318 

From Marmion and Douglas. — Scott. 319 

From Marco Bozzaris. — Halleck 3.19 

From Black Regiment. — Boker 319 

Tell's Address to the Alps. — J. S. Knowles 321 

CHAPTER XY. 

VEHEMENT STYLE. 

Cataline's Defiance. — Croly 322 

The Seminole's Defiance.— G. W. Patten 323 

Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua. — K Kellogg. 324 

CHAPTER XVI. 

DKAMATIC STYLE. 

From on Board the Cumberland, March 7, 1862. — George H. 

Boker 32t 

Abou Ben-Adhem. — Leigh Hunt 328 

2 



18 CONTENTS. 

Page 

Leap foe Life.— G. P. Morris 329 

Lord Ulljn's Daughter. — Campbell 330 

John Burns of Gettysburg. — F Bret Harte 331 

Poor Litile Jim 334 

Gambler's Wife. — Coates. 335 

The Beautiful Snow. — James W. Watson 336 

Maud Muller. — J. G. Whittier 338 

John Maynard, the Hero Pilate. — Gough 342 

Black Regiment. — Boker 343 

On the Shores of Tennessee 345 

The Vagabonds. — Trowbridge 347 

On Board the Cumberland. — Boker 350 

The Bells. — Edgar A. Foe < . . * 354 

The Rising, 1776. — T. Buchanan Bead 357 

The Polish Boy. — Mrs. Ann S. Stephens 360 

Count Candespina's Standard. — Boker. : 364 

The Baron's Last Banquet. — A. G. Green 367 

Bernardo Del Carpo. — Mrs. Remans * 369 

The Raven.— Edgar A. Foe 375 

Scene from Hamlet 371 



HUIOKOUS STYLE. 

The Nantucket Skipper. — J. T. Fields 378 

A Categorical Courtship 379 

Mr. Orator Puff. — Thomas Moore 380 

Smack in School. — W. P. Palmer 381 

Pyramus and Thisbe. — Saxe 382 

A Very Important Proceeding — From Pickwick Papers. — 

Dickens 3 84 



THE 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION, 



ELOCUTION. 

Elocution is the Science and Art of expressing thought 
and feeling by utterance and action. 

As a science, it unfolds the principles of reading and 
speaking ; as an art, it embodies in delivery every accom- 
plishment, both of voice and action, necessary to appro- 
priate expression. 

The requisites of a good elocution are, 

First, Distinct articulation ; 

Second, Full and free respiration ; 

Third, Perfect control of a clear, full, round, musical 
tone of voice ; 

Fourth, Graceful and expressive action ; 

Fifth, Cultivated taste and judgment. 



20 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



TABULAR VIEW OF THE SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



1. EXPKES- 
SION 



2. DEDUC- 
TIONS.. 



1. ARTICU- 
LATION. . 

2. Respira- 
tion 



3. Voice. 



Vocals. 
Sub -Vocals. 
Aspirates. 
Effusive. , 
Expulsive. 
Explosive. 



1. Attributes. 



2. Accidents. 



Form 



Quality 



Force. 



Stress. 



Pitch 



Movement. 

Quantity. . 
Inflections. 

Waves 

Cadence. . . 
Pauses 

Emphasis . 



4. Action. . - 

Pathetic. 

Serious. 

Tranquil. 

Grave. 

Didactic. 

Lively. 

Gay. 

Joyous. 

Sublime. 

Oratorical. 

Impassioned 

Shouting. 

Vehement. 



Climax. 
, Grouping. 
Lower Limbs and Body. 
Arms and Hands. 
Face. 



\ Effusive. 

Expulsive. 

Explosive. 

Pure Tone. 

Orotund. 

Aspirate. 

Pectoral. 

Guttural. 

Oral. 

Subdued. 

Moderate. 

Energetic. 

Impassioned. 

Radical. 

Median. 

Final. 

Compound. 

Thorough. 
. Intermittent. 
' Very High. 

High. 

Middle. 

Low. 
. Very Low. 
' Very Rapid. 

Rapid. 

Moderate. 

Slow. 

Very Slow. 

Long. 

Short. 

Upward. 

Downward. 

Upward. 

Downward. 

Complete. 

Partial. 

Long. 

Short. 
' Force. 

Stress. 

Quality. 
. Pitch. 



Poetic. 



PAET I. 

EXPRESSION. 

The term expression includes all that part of Elocu- 
tion which relates to articulation, respiration, vocaliza- 
tion, and action. 

♦ 

CHAPTER I. 

AKTICULATION. 

Articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds 
of a language by the appropriate movements of the 
organs of speech. 

A ready and distinct articulation is an indispensable 
requisite to good reading. 

Owing to bad habits acquired in early youth, and to 
defective systems of instruction, but few persons pos- 
sess this invaluable accomplishment. 

Frequent and careful practice on the elementary 
sounds will in almost every case correct defects, and 
impart a ready and distinct articulation. 

SECTION I. 
ELEMENTARY SOUNDS. 

An elementary sound is a sound produced by a single 
impulse of the organs of speech. 

Phonologists pretty generally agree that there are 
forty-four elementary sounds in the English language. 



22 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

These sounds are represented by letters and characters. 
The sounds are divided into vocals, sub-vocals, and 
aspirates ; the letters into vowels and consonants. 

chaet of the elementaey sounds. 

Long Vocals. Short Vocals. 

1. e, as in me, eve. • 9. i, as in ill, it. 

serge, verge. 10. e, " ell, let. 

aim, ale. 11. o, " odd, not. 

air, care. 12. ti, " up, sup. 

arm, farm. 13. a, " add, sad. 

or, for. 14. a, " ask, task, 

oak, no. 15. u, " full, pull, 
ooze, do. 

Diphthongs. 

16. I, as in ice, lie. 18. ti, as in mute, tube. 

17. oi, " oil, boil. 19. ou, " out, sound. 



2. 


e, 


a 


3. 


a, 


ii 


4. 


a, 


ii 


5. 


a, 


ii 


6. 


o, 


ii 


7. 


o, 


ii 


8. 


°> 


ii 



Sub- Vocals. — Correlatives. 


20. 


b, as in boy, ebb. 


21. 


a, 


u 


did, rod. 


22. 


g> 


n 


go, rag. 


23. 


g> 


n 


gem, judge. 


24. 


v, 


n 


veer, valve. 


25. 


th, 


u 


this, breathe. 


26. 


z> 


u 


zone, zeal. 


27. 


zh, 


u 


azure, seizure. 




Sub- Vocals. — Liquids. 


28. 


1, as in 


lo, will. 


29. 


r, 


u 


row, roar. 


30. 


m, 


<( 


moon, home. 



31, n, « 

32. ng, " sing, ring. 



ELEMENTARY SOUNDS. 23 

Sub- Vocals. — Coaleseents. 

33. w, as in we, wit. 

34. y, " yet, you. 

Aspirates. — Explodents. 



35. p, as in pin, pipe. 


36. t, " 


till, spot 


37. k, " 


kick, neck. 


38. ch, " 


church, which. 


Aspirates 


— Continuants. 


39. f, as in 


fife, stiff. 


40. th, " 


think, breath. 


41. s, " 


see, pass. 


42. sh, " 


shine, wish. 


43. h, " 


he, hat. 


44. wh," 


whence, what. 



SECTION n. 

EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION. 

The following exercises are designed for the cultiva- 
tion of a distinct and accurate articulation. Syllabica- 
tion, accent, and pronunciation, though all important in 
reading and speaking, do not properly belong to a work 
on Elocution. They can only be thoroughly learned 
from the unabridged dictionaries. 

Position of the Body. 
The pupil should be careful, when practicing the fol- 
lowing exercises, to maintain an erect position of the 
body, keep the head up, the chest expanded, and the 
shoulders well back. 

Suggestions. 
These exercises are not designed merely for those 
whose articulation is defective. Persons who speak 



24 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

with even more than ordinary accuracy will be greatly 
benefited by frequent practice on the elementary sounds. 

That the highest advantage may be derived from this 
practice let there be no feeble work. 

Repeat each exercise with energy, clearness, and 
precision. 

Before uttering any word or sentence repeat a num- 
ber of times the element for the cultivation of which 
the exercise is specially designed. 

In pronouncing the long vocals, which admit of in- 
definite prolongation, be careful not to drawl them. 

Exercises on the elementary sounds are now so gen- 
erally practiced in the primary schools and at colleges, 
and the positions and actions of the organs in the pro- 
duction of these sounds so accurately taught, that a 
detailed discussion of them here is deemed unnecessary. 





Exercises on the Long Vocals. 


I. 


e, as in me. 






he, the, be, 


eve, 




meed, heed, need, 


seed, 




breathe, these, please, 


least. 


1. 


I believe it every word. 




2. 


I mean what I say. 




3. 


Seems, madam ! nay, it is. 




4. 


Tell them we need no change. 




5. 


Be not overcome by evil. 




6. 


Heat me these irons hot. 




V. 


I must be brief. 




8. 


We must believe to be saved. 




II 


. e, as in earth. 






earth, ermine, 


verge, 




prefer, mirth, 


serge. 



ARTICULATION. 25 

1. The unsullied sanctity of your ermine. 

2. I prefer not to do it. 

3. He is on the verge of ruin. 

4. Crown him with myrtle. 

5. I am in earnest. 

HI. a, as in aim. 

aim, ale, pay, may, 

age, pale, lame, slay, 

pray, day, clay, vain. 

1. If we fail we can do no worse. 

2. He is a saint. 

3. He may pray, but it will be all in vain. 

4. They say that we will fail. 

5. May we pay our way ? 

6. He is afraid of me. 

7. Nay, after that, consume away in rust. 

8. Away ! away ! let me not see thy face. 

IV. a, as in air. 

their, lair, dare, hair, 

chair, . prepare, prayer, despair. 

1. The air is very cool. 

2. Dare to do right. 

3. Swear by my sword. 

4. Air, earth, and sea, resound his praise. 

5. Come, boy, prepare yourself. 

6. Where shall the lover rest ? 

1. There through the summer day. 
8. Scarce are boughs waving. 



. a, as in arm. 






arm, harm, 


charm, 


farm, 


qualm, calm, 


balm, 


alarm, 


palm, psalm, 


ma'am, 


father. 



for, 


nor, 


on, 


war, 


all, 


tall, 


corn, 


small, 


pall. 



26 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

1. To arms ! to arms ! they cry. 

2. The night was calm and beautiful. 

3. Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star ? 

4. I will not harm thee, boy. 

5. The psalm was warrior David's song. 

6. The balmy breath of incense-breathing morn. 

V. A -qualm of conscience brings me back again. 

8. Father, thy hand hath reared this venerable column. 

VI. 6, as in or. 
or,. 

north, 
law, 

1. My voice is still for war. 

2. The law must be obeyed. 

3. The cause stands not on eloquence, but stands on 
laws. 

4. All that I am, all that I hope in this life, I am now 
ready to stake on it. 

5. The north is wild with alarms. 

6. I come not here to talk. 

7. His tall form taller seemed. 

8. The pall was settled. 

VII. o, as in no. 

no, go, lo, woe, 

home, old, bold, glorious, 

sold, enrolled, fold, gold. 

1. Paid my price in paltry gold. 

2. No, no, gentlemen, gold cannot purchase it. 

3. They have enrolled us. 

4. Thou glorious mirror. 

5. Fold her hands lightly. 

6. Home, thy joys are passing lovely. 



fool, 


stool, 


boon, 


soon, 


noon, 


choose. 



ARTICULATION. 27 

7. Woe, woe, woe, unto thee, Chorazin. 

8. The bold, brave boy of Glingal. 

VIII. o, as in ooze, 
who, ooze, 
moon, room, 
loom, doom, 

1. Thy doom is fixed. 

2. The fool hath said, No God. 

3. There is no longer any room for hope. 

4. The moon's pale light. 

5. Soon we shall join the kindred dead. 

6. The blood oozed from his ghastly wound. 

7. Who dare assert it ? 

8. You denied me this. 

Exercises on Short Vocals. 

IX. i, as in ill. 
ill, it, 
in, rip, 
rid, pith, 

1. I will never submit. 

2. Bid me of these vagabonds. 

3. It is I ; be not afraid. 

4. Inch by inch we will dispute the ground. 

5. I'll risk my life upon it. 

6. Ill-mannered wretch. 

7. If I can catch him once upon the hip. 

8. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause 
of liberty. 



will, 


fill, 


inch, 


ink, 


risk, 


till. 



X. e, as in ell. 






ell, let, 


end, 


deck, 


neck, wreck, 


pet, 


send, 


men, pest, 


jet, 


death. 



28 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



1. The end of all things is at hand. 

2. Let come what may. 

3. The people are in debt. 

4. Men, men, for shame, thus to yield. 

5. I would never lay down my arms, never, never. 

6. This in a moment brings me to my end. 

7. But this informs me I shall never die. 

8. Up to the spar deck ! 



stop, 

rod, 

rot. 



XL o, as in odd. 

odd, not, on, 

cot, rob, rock, 

got, nod, sod, 

1. And the rock shall rear its head. 

2. Stop ! for thy tread is on an empire's dust. 

3. Odd ! 'tis very odd indeed. 

4. Let the carrion rot. 

5. Unconsciously he executes the will of God. 

6. His lot is a hard one. 

7. This rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I. 

8. On, on, you noble English. 



XII. u, as in up. 

up, sup, cup, 

but, us, hut, 

hug, bud, run, 

1. Up, comrades, up ! 

2. Give me rum ! O give me rum ! 

3. The cup is full of poison. 

4. They sup full well. 

5. Your apprehension must be dull. 

6. That skull had a tongue in it once. 

7. Don't give up the ship. 

8. They tell us that we are weak. 



skull, 

hub, 

gun. 



ARTICULATION. 29 

XHL a, as in add. 

add, sad, had, mat, 

bad, back, cat, rat, 

battle, scaffold, satisfy, that. 

1. His countenance was sad. 

2. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. 

3. What will satisfy you ? 

4. Back to thy punishment, false fugitive. 

5. Add to your virtue, faith. 

6. The scaffold has no terrors for me. 
V. Let me die like a man. 

8. That will be justice. 

XIV. a, as in ask. 
asKj xasjoi, 
fast, hasp, 
grass, pass, 

1. Pass the shadow but a hair. 

2. Ask and you shall receive. 

3. The grass grows green above her grave. 

4. The task is done. 

5. Fast hurrying through the outer door. 

6. Grant me but an hour of life. 

7. And clasping to his heart his boy, he fainted on 
the deck. 

8. Fast bind, fast find. 

XV. u, as in full. 

full, pull, put, puss, 

push, bullet, bullion, fuller. 

1. Full many a gem of richest ray serene. 

2. Pull, pull for your lives. 

3. The bullet passed near his face. 

4. The fuller fulls his cloth. 



flask, 


mask, 


grant, 


branch, 


mass, 


clasp. 



30 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Exercises on Diphthongs. 
. XVI. i, as in ice. 

ice, lie, try, fie, 

mile, fight, kite, ripe, 

spike, bide, vise, isle. 

1. A mile or two at most. 

2. Let him bide his time. 

3. My name, my fame, must be unsullied. 

4. And give thee in thy teeth the lie. 

5. His form is held as in a vise. 

6. The vile wretch. 

7. The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece. 

8. I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked. 

XVII. oi, or oy, as in oil. 
oil, boil, 
voice, toil, 
boisterous, noise, 

1. My voice is still for war. 

2. What noise is that I hear ? 

3. Rejoice, ye men of Angiers. 

4. The boisterous waves lashed the shore. 

5. Let not the sacred soil be polluted. 

6. The toil-worn traveler enters. 
*7. Joy, joy ! shout aloud for joy ! 
8. The spoil shall be the victor's reward. 

XVIII. u, as in mute, 
tube, duke, beauty, amuse, 
subdue, fury, usage, use, 
value, statue, renew, few. 

1. Few shall part where many meet. 

2. The demand determines the value. 

3. The curfew tolls. 



foil, 


soil, 


boy, 


joy, 


rejoice, 


turmoil 



ARTICULATION. 31 

4. He knew that it was wrong. 

5. The general reviewed his army. 

6. He was mute with astonishment. 
1. The statute forbids it. 

8. Renew it o'er and o'er. 

XIX. ou, as in out. 

out, sound, hour, thou, 

plow, now, thousand, round, 

pound, bound, mount, fount. 

1. Out, out, brief candle ! 

2. Put out the light, and then put out the light. 

3. Now, by the gods above us, sires ! 

4. A thousand at thy side shall fall. 

5. A day, an hour, of virtuous liberty is worth a whole 
eternity of bondage. 

6. Bound thy desires by thy means. 
V. Thou hast destroyed us. 

8. Sound, sound the alarm ! 

Exeecises on Stjb -Vocals. — Correlatives. 

XX. b, as in boy. 

bad, boon, bind, bend, 

brown, beck, beat, beg, 

orb, tube, curb, rub, 

dub, nib, mob, rob. 

1. Bind beauteous boughs upon his brow. 

2. Bend not before the beauteous vision. 

3. Be brave, be bold, for good. 

4. Brave boys of Bengal. 

5. Basely they bound him to the beach. 

6. The bards of the Bible. 

7. Benjamin Brown bought the book. 

8. He is a bold, brave, bad boy. 



dead, 


delve, 


deep, 


deed, 


sad, 


lad, 


bard, 


defend, 



32 SCIENCE OF ELOCtlTION. 

XXI. d, as in did. 
doom, duty, 
day, defy, 
add, mad, 
head, hard, 

1. Dare to do right. 

2. Down on thy knees, thy doom is sealed. 

3. Deep calleth unto deep. 

4. Do you dare defy my authority ? 

5. Down the long dark line. 

6. Despair not of success in the darkest day. 

7. Did you say David is dead ? 

8. Despise not the day of small things. 

XXII. g, as in go. 

give, gone, gad, grind, 

grant, gasp, glad, guilt, 

hag, rag, lag, log, 

tug, sag, fag, dog. 

1. Gold gave thee all thy grace. 

2. Grasp the goal and gain the prize. 

3. Grant ye, O grant ye this boon to me ! 

4. Gather graces from the groves. 

5. Go, give thy gains away. 

6. Gather not greedily the gold. 

7. God grant thee grace. 

8. Glory gathers on his brow. 

XXIII. g, as in judge. 

gem, j° m > cage, jade, 

jam, jag, jeer, jar, 

jump, June, jolt, jovial. 

1. Join, all ye people, in his praise. 

2. Gems of richest ray serene. 



ARTICULATION. 

3. Justice should join with mercy. 

4. Justly judge the cause. 

5. Journeymen do not always deal justly. 

6. Juno, the sister and wife of Jupiter. 

7. Jocund John jokes jocosely. 

8. Join the everlasting jubilee. 



33 



[V. v, as in veer. 






vale, void, 


value, 


vile, 


vary, vase, 


vent, 


valve, 


have, live, 


brave, 


save, 


love, above, 


give, 


behave. 



1. Value virtue highly. 

2. Vile villains vent their vengeance. 

3. Valiant deeds deserve praise. 

4. Vengeance belongeth to the Lord. 

5. Verily, verily, I say unto you. 

6. Vagabonds wander idly around. 

7. Vain, vain are all thy efforts. 

8. Various views are entertained. 



XXV. th, as in this. 

this, their, them, then, 

thence, there, than, that, 

breathe, beneath, wreathe, weather. 

1. This is the place, the center of the grove. 

2. Thou breathest, silent the submissive waves. 

3. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade. 

4. Breathes there a man with soul so dead. 

5. Wreathe flowers for the valiant dead. 

6. That thou shouldst die. 

7. The vessel weathered the storm. 

8. There is now no longer any room for hope. 

3 



34 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



XXVI. z, as in zone. 




zone, zeal, 


zest, zebra, 


zero, zinc, 


zigzag, zenith, 


has, was, 


cause, rouse. 


1. The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up. 


2. He has reached the zenith of his glory. 


3. Zeno was zealous in 


his work. 



4. He has zeal without knowledge. 

5. The cause will raise up men. 

6. Rouse, ye Romans, rouse ! 

7. The zephyr breathes calmly. 

8. Zion, the joy of all the earth. 

XXVII. zh, as in azure. 

azure, pleasure, seizure, measure, 

erasure, treasure, composure, disclosure. 

1. The measure of man is mind. 

2. Your pleasure shall be the law. 

3. The treasures of the universe are his. 

4. The seizure was made according to law. 

5. ISTot like those steps on heaven's azure. 

Exercises on Sub -Vocals. — Liquids. 
XXVIII. 1, as in lo. 
loud, l° n g> 

land, lend, 

fall, all, 

1. Lo, the poor Indian ! 

2. Leaves have their time to fall. 

3. Leave me, leave me to die alone. 

4. Land, land ahead. 

5. Little lads like looking about. 

6. Learned lads like long lessons. 

7. Last, last, lordliest of lords. 

8. Lord Leland long loved the landlady of Leicester. 



leave, 


last, 


least, 


loose, 


call, 


wall. 



ARTICULATION. 35 

XXIX. r, as in row. 

roar, roam, roast, reel, 

round, rise, river, reap, 

flour, fear, near, sear. 

1. Rough and rugged rocks rear their heads high in 
air. 

2. Round the rude ring the ragged rascal ran. 

3. Robert rebuked Richard, who ran roaring. 

4. Rich, ripe, round fruit hung round the room. 
- 5. Real riches rise from within. 

6. Return, O holy Dove, return ! 

7. Roderick Random ran a ridiculous race. 

8. Rivers to the ocean run. 

XXX. m, as in mow. 

moon, morn, move, mop, 

man, mind, malt, mine, 

arm, farm, harm, warm. 

1. Many men are misled by fame. 

2. More than mortal man may not be. 

3. Much learning hath made thee mad. 

4. Milestones mark the march of time. 

5. More misery may be yet mine. 

6. Mournfully they march to the martial music. 

7. Men may rise by their own merit. 

8. May thy memory be embalmed in the hearts of 
man. 

XXXI. n, as in no. 

noon, now, near, name, 

new, nice, never, nest, 

fan, man, ran, won. 

1. Name not the gods, thou boy of tears. 

2. No nation need despair. 



36 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

3. Not now, Neighbor Norton. 

4. Near by the spring upon a tree you know I cat 
your name. 

5. No man knows the future. 

6. Now none so poor to do him reverence. 

*1. I would never lay down my arms, never, never, 
never ! 

8. Napoleon's noble nature knew no niggardly notions. 

XXXII. ng, as in sing. 

sing, ring, long, song, 

bring, thing, doing, ringing, 

arming, learning, rising, warring. 

1. Bring flowers, sweet flowers. 

2. Long may it wave. 

3. Standing on the confines of another world. 

4. Living, we will maintain it. 

5. Dying we will assert it. 

6. It is my living sentiment. 

1. By the blessing of God it will be my dying sen- 
timent. 

8. Nothing but death can separate us. 

Exercises on Sub -Vocals. — Coalescents. 

XXXIII. w, as in wit. 





was, wise, 


word, 


wind, 




war, wan, 


wild, 


well, 




weed, weld, 


wear, 


week. 


1. 


Wild was the night. 






2. 


Weep not for me. 






3. 


When wisdom shall return. 




4. 


Well have they done their part. 




5. 


Wise men will rule well. 






6. 


Wisdom is above rubies. 







ARTICULATION. 37 

1. "Was ever woman in this humor wooed ? 
8. Was ever woman in this humor won ? 



XIV. y, as in yet. 






you, yes, 


yard, 


yea, 


yawn, year, 


yacht, 


yawl, 


yell, yellow, 


yelk, 


ye!p> 


yield, young, 


youth, 


your. 



1. Yield to mercy while 'tis offered to you. 

2. Yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed like one of these. 

3. Yield, madman, yield, thy horse is down. 

4. Young men ahoy ! 

5. Youth is the seed-time of life. 

6. Yonder comes the powerful king of day. 

7. Yesterday shall be as to-day. 

8. Year after year our blessings continue. 

Exercises ox Aspirates. — Mzplodents. 

XXXV. p, as in pin. 
pipe, place, 

port, play, 

pony, pop, 

poem, press, 

1. I*rove all things. 

2. Poverty and pride are poor companions. 

3. Perish my name ! 

4. Perhaps her love, perhaps her kingdom, charmed 
him. 

5. Pickwick Papers, part first. 

6. Pour this pestilence into her eyes. 
1. Pictures of palaces please the eye. 
8. Pious people praise the Lord. 



page, 


post, 


poor, 


pope, 


point, 


p!y> 


prove, 


proud. 



5 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

XXXVI. t, as in tip. 

top, till, toy, time, 

tap, tag, tat, tart, 

test, tent, tight, trout, 

tartar, tassel, tangle, tartan. 

1. Touch not, taste not, handle not. 

2. Time and tide wait for no man. 

3. T\}rn their uprooted trunks toward the skies. 

4. Tremble and totter, ye adamantine mountains. 

5. Teaching the rustic moralist to die. 

6. Teach the truant child to pray. 
1. Two guests sat at the feast. 

8. Tar, tallow, tumeric, turpentine, and tin. 

XXXVII. k, as in kick, 
kin, keel, 
key, kind, 
kite, kirk, 
kink, kith, 

1. Keep thy own counsels. 

2. Come in consumption's ghastly form. 

3. Kites rise against the wind. 

4. Clean, placid Leman. 

5. Kill a king. 

6. Crown the victor. 

7. Kindness kills the cause of hate. 

8. Come one, come all. 

XXXVIII. ch, as in church. 

choose, chaste, chat, cheek, 

cheese, cheer, cheat, cheap, 

chide, cherish, choice, child, 

chief, chess, cherub, chick. 

1. Children choose trifling toys. 

2. Chaucer's poetry charmed the chief. 



keep, 


ken, 


king, 


kiss, 


cart, 


cape, 


call, 


cost. 



ARTICULATION. 

3. Charge, Chester ! charge ! 

4. Change cannot change thee. 

5. Cheery, changeless, chieftainless. 

6. Chaplets of chainless charity are for thee. 
1. Chalice of childlike cheerfulness is thine. 
8. Charity suffereth, and is kind. 

Exercises on Aspirates. — Continuants. 



39 



XXXIX. f, 


as in fame. 






fast, 


fate, 


far, 


fane, 


fatal, 


fearful, 


favor, 


feed, 


felon, 


fellow, 


fenny, 


fetter, 


friend, 


filch er, 


finger, 


finical. 



1. Fast bind, fast find. 
• 2. Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked. 

3. Fast by the throne obsequious Fame resides. 

4. Father, from above bend down thine ear. 

5. Fortune favors the brave. 

6. False face must hide what the false heart doth 
know. 

1. Firm in his faith he falters not. 
8. First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts 
of his countrymen. 

XL. th, as in think. 

thick, thin, through, thanks, 

thought, thrust, thong, thousand, 

breath, hath, birth, death. 

1. Three thousand thistles were thrust through his 
thumb. 

2. Thanks to the thoughtful giver. 

3. Thick and thicker fell the hail. 

4. Through the thronged crowd he thrust his way. 

5. Thrust the thorn into the flesh. 



4:0 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

6. Three thousand soldiers thoughtlessly threw them- 
selves away. 

7. Think thoughtfully three times. 

XLI. s, as in sound. 

sing, sour, sight, south, 

sigh, soon, stop, safe, 

song, suns, systems, strand. 

1. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing. « 

2. Star after star from heaven's high arch shall rush. 

3. Send us the spirit of the Son. 

4. See the stars from heaven falling. 

5. Soldiers, sailors, seamen, all were lost. 

6. Suns sink on suns, and systems systems crush. 
1. See sinners in the Gospel glass. 

8. Softly, slowly see the sun arise. 

XLII. sh, as in shame. 

shun, show, shear, shove, 

shout, sham, shroud, shelf, 

shine, ship, shore, shrine. 

1. Shakspeare, Shelley and Sheridan. 

2. She sang the song of the shirt. 

3. Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea. 

4. Shout, shout aloud for joy ! 

5. Shrines shall guard the sacred dust. 

6. So shalt thou rest secure. 

7. Shroud my shame, night's gathering darkness. 

8. She then shall dress a sweeter sod. 



[II. h, as in hope. 






hold, hand, 


hard, 


harp, 


head, help, 


• half, 


hart, 


harsh, herds, 


hero, 


1 hermit. 



AKTICULATION. 41 

1. How heavy the hunter's tread. 

2. His horsemen hard behind us ride. 

3. Heroes have hearts for noble deeds. 

4. How sweet to my heart are the scenes of my 
childhood. 

5. Hail, holy light. 

6. How high the heavens appear ! 

7. He heaved a huge stone up the hill. 

8. Hark ! hark ! for bread my children cry. 

XLIY. wh, as in what. 

when, whip, where, whet, 

wheel, wheat, whine, white, 

whips, whence, what, whirl. 

1. Whence and what art thou ? 

2. What whim led Whitney to invent the cotton 

gin? 

3. Whither, O whither shall I fly ! 

4. What white- winged sail is that ? 

5. Why will kings forget that they are men ! 

6. Whither when they came they fell at words. 

7. Whither away so fast ? 

8. Whisper softly in the assembly. 

Initial Combinations. 

1. Br. brick, bread, bran, brought, brush, breeze, 

broom. 

2. Bl. bloom, blur, blaze, blight, blood, blow, blue. 

3. Dr. drill, dread, dram, dross, drum, dream, droll. 

4. Dw. dwell, dwarf, dwindle. 

5. Fl. fling, fled, flat, flood, flee, flare, flaw. 

6. Fr. froze, fruit, frame, fry, from, frieze. 

7. GL glib, glen, glad, gloss, glut, glean, glare. 



4:2 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

8. Gr. grasp, graze, grind, growl, grow, groom. 

9. Kl. click, clef, clam, clot, cluck, clean, claw. 

10. Kr. crane, crime, crown, crow, crude, cram. 

11. Kw. quick, quench, quack, queer, quart, quirk. 

12. Ku. cue, cube, cute, cure, curate. 

13. Pr. prim, priest, prong, prayer, praise, prime, 

proud. 

14. PI. plat, plot, plush, please, play, ply, plow. 

15. Sp. spin, spend, span, spar, spur, spear, spare, 

spawn. 

16. Spr. spring, spread, sprat, sprung, spree, sprawl, 

spray. 

1*7. Spl. split, splash, spleen, splice, splint. 

18. Sph. sphere, sphinx, spheric, spherule. 

19. St. stick, stem, stand, star, stood, stun, steel. 

20. Str. straw, stray, strive, strow, strong, strength. 

21. Sn. snip, snag, snarl, snub, sneeze, snores, snail. 

22. Sm. smut, smear, small, smile, smote, smooth, 

smell. 

23. SI. slip, slept, slang, sloth, slung, sleep, slur, 

slay. 

24. Sk. skip, scan, scot, scar, scaled, score, scale, 

sky. 

25. Ski. Sclave, sclerotic. 

26. Skr. scrip, scrap, scrub, scream, scrawl, scribe, 

screw. 
21. Skw. squib, square, squash, squat, squeak, squall. 

28. Shr. shrimp, shrug, shrill, shrive, shroud, shrew. 

29. Tr. trill, tread, trash, trot, trust, tree, train, try. 

30. Tw. twinge, twang, tweed, twain, twine, tweak. 

31. Thr. thrill, thread, throb, thrush, three, thrice. 



ARTICULATION. 43 

Terminal Combinations. 

COMBINATIONS. EXAMPLES. 

Bd, bdst. Fvo-b'd'st, \fab-VcPst, robVd'st, 

ox-Vd. 
bl, blst, bid, bldst, biz. trou-ble, trou-bVst, trou-bFd, trou- 

bVdst, trou-bles. 
bz. ni-bs, na-bs, ipro-bes, tri-bes, sta-fo, 

cm-bs. 
bst. fib-b'st, stub-6's£, Tob-b' } st, sob-Vst, 

ro-b'st. 
dl, dlst, did, didst, dlz. haa-dle, h&n-dPst, b&n-dPd, han- 

dVdst, ban-dies. 
dn, dnz, dnst, dnd, bar-den, bar-dens, bar-d'ri>st, har- 

dndst. dWd, bar-dWdst. 

dz. ia-des, hi-des, dee-ds, loa-ds, 

broo-ds, bee-ds. 
dst. mi-dst, bved-d'st, di-dst, co\A-d'st, 

ba-d'st, loa-d'st. 
dth, dths. 1 wi-dth,hi'e&-dth,hre2L-dths,v?i-dths. 

gd, gdst. beg-g'd, brag-g'd, brag-g'dst, beg- 

g'd'st. 
gl, gist, gld, gldst, glz. man-gle, man-gVst, mangl'd, man- 

gVdst, man-gles. 
gz. di-^5, dre-gs, wa-gs, lo-gs, bu-gs, 

eg-gs, bo-gs. 
gst. ^g-g'st, wag-g'st, dog-g'st, dug- 

g'st. 
jd. brid-g'd, bed-g'd, dred-g'd, 

jud-g'd. 
fl, fist, fld, fldst, flz. tri-Jle, toifist, tri-fl'd, trifi dst, 

triples. 
fiiftSyftst. $wi-ft, wa-ft, wa-fts, wa-f?st, 

qnaf-ffst. 



44 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



EXAMPLES. 



COMBINATIONS. 

fs, fst. mn-fs, lau-ghs, lau-ghst, stuf-fst. 

fth, fths, n-fth, n-fths. 

si, slst, sld, sldst, slz. nestle, nestVst, nestVd, nestVdst, 

nestles, 
mask, masked, masks, maskst. 
rasp, rasped, rasps, clasps. 
Ust, bust, busts, costs. 
hit-cA' d, iel-c/i'd, sket-ch'd, 

hat-ch'd. 
bu-lb, bxL-lb'd, bu-lbs. 
fil-led, ho-ld, ho-lds, no-ldst, 

nl-ld'st. 
loi-lge, bu-lge, bn-lg'd, bi-lg'd. 
whe-lm, whe-lm'd, whe-lms. 
swol-len, fal-len, sto-len, wool-len, 

ml-len. 
de-lve, she-lve, she-lv'd, she-lves, 

de-lv'd, de-lves. 
fil-Js, tel-ls, bal-ls, hul-ls, tol-ls, 

cal-ls. 
e-lk, €\-lk, sSrlks, mn-lct, mu-lcts. 
-pu-lp, he-lp, he-lp*d, he-lps, 

he-lpst. 
hi-lt, ha-lt, ha-lts, ha-ltfst, shaVtf, 

sha-ltfst. 
***/, gn-lf, gu-lfs, se-//. 
fa-lse, fal-Fst, dwel-£'s£, cal-Vst. 
ti-lth, hea-lth, hea-lths, wea-lth. 
n-lch, ft-lcKd. 
dim-mW, en\>Q-mVd, ento-mb 'dst, 

hem-rri'd. 
la-mbs, to-mbs, he-ms, su-ms, 

ha-ms. 



sk, skt, sks, skst. 
sp, spt, sps. 
st,sts. 
cht. 

lb, Ibd, Ibz. 
Id, Idz, Idst. 

Ij, Ijd. 

Im, Imd, Imz. 

In. 

Iv, Ivd, Ivz. 

Iz. 

Ik, Iks, Ikt, Ikts. 
Ip, Ipt, Ips, Ipst. 

It, Us, Itst. 

w, if*. 

Is, 1st 
Ith, Iths. 
Ich, Icht. 
md, mdst. 

mz. 



ARTICULATION. 45 

COMBINATIONS. EXAMPLES. 

mp, mps, mpt, mpts. i-mp, i-wips, atte-mpt, atte-mpts. 

m A m f s ' ly-mph, nj-mph, nj-mphs. 

mst. dim-m'stf, ento-mVst, hem-m'st, 

roa-m'st. 
nd, ndz, ndst. ii-nd, se-nd, se-nds, se-ncFst, 

ft-ndht. 
nj, njd. si-nge, xa-nge, ra-ng'd, si-ng'd. 

nz. pe-rcs, fi-rcs, ia-ns, tu-ns, quee-ns. 

ngd, ngdst, ngz, ngth, ha-ng'd, ha-ng'dst, ha-ngs, 

ngths. stre-ngth, stre-ngths. 

nlc, nkt, nJcs, nkst. wi-nk, wi-ntfd, wi-nks, wi-ntfst, 

dri-nk'st. 
nt, nts, ntst. wa-nt, wa-nts, wa-ntfst, be-nfst. 

ns, nst. ^e-nce, wi-nce, wi-nc'd, da-nce, 

da-nc'st. 
nch, ncht. qne-nch, fli-nch, fi.i-nch'd, 

que-nch'd. 
rb, rbst, rbd, rbdst, ba-rb, ba-rb'st, ba-rb'd, ba-rVdst, 

rbz. ba-rbs. 

rd, rdst, rdz. fur-rV?, hea-rd, hea-rd?st, ba-rds, 

ca-rds. 
rg, rgz. bu-rgh, bu-rghs. 

rj, rjd. • me-rge, u-rge, u-rg'd, me-rg'd. 

rl y rlst, rid, rldst, rlz. hu-?^, b\\-rVs% hu-rVd, hu-rVds% 

hn-rls. 
rm, rmst, rmd, rmdst, wa-rm, wa-rm'st, wa-rm'd, 
rmz, rmth. wa-rm'dst, wa-rms, wa-rmth. 

rn, rnst, rnd, rndst, bu-rn, bu-wi'st, bu-rrtd, bu-rrtdst, 

rnt, rnz. bn-rnt, bu-rns. 

rv y rvst, rvd, rvdst, cvi-rve, cu-rv'st, cu-n;W, cu-rv*dst, 

rvz. cu-rves. 

rz. fi-rs, sta-rs, wa-rs, bea-rs, o-res, 

fi-T6S. 



46 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

COMBINATIONS. EXAMPLES. 

rh, rhs, rhst, rht, rhtst. ha-rh, ha-rhs, ha-rhst, ha-r^d, 

ha-rh'dst. 
rp, rps, rpst, rpt, rptst. ha-rp, ha-rps, ha-rpst, ha-rp'd, 

ha-rp'dst, 
rt, rts, rtst. spi-rtf, hn-rt, hu-rts, tm-rfst, spi-rts, 

spi-rfst. 
rf, rft, rfs. sca-r/*, tn-rf, tu-rfd, tn-rfs, sca-rfs. 

rs, rstf, rsts, rstst. cu-rse, hea-rse, bu-rs£, hu-rsts, 

cu-rs'd, cu-rs^dst. 
rth, rths. wor-th, hearth, hea-rths, mi-rth, 

bi-rths. 
rsh. ma-rsh, ha-rsh. 

rch, rcht. ma-rch, sea-rcfrd, l\\.-rch, lu-rcA'd 

vc?, vdst. li-v'd, li-v'c?s£, mo-uW, mo-tt'<fc£. 

v?, vfctf, vfc?, vfo^, vfe. dri-w7, dri-^Vstf, driVZW, dri-v Ws£, 

dri-«Ys. 
vra, ?m2, vntfA. hea-v'w, heaVrcs, ele-v'nth, dri-v'n. 

vz. el-ves, del-ves, - li-ves, mo-ves, 

leases, do-ves. 
vst. mo-vst, li-vst, del-vst, ra-v's£. 

zd. -pleased, ama-zW, raised, closed, 

zl, zlst, zld, zldst, zlz. muz-zle, muz-zlst, muz-s^, muz- 

zVdst, vmz-zles. 
zm, zmz. cha-sm, spa-sm, spasms, chasms, 

zn, znst, znd, zndst, -prison, imprisonst, imprisoned, 

znz. imprisortdst, prisons, 

thd, thz, thst. wrea-ttfd, wrea-ths ) wrea-thst. 

hi, hist, hid, hldst, hlz. truc-hle, truc-hPst, truc-hPd, truc- 

hVdst, trvic-hles. 
hn, hnst, hnd, hndst, hlac-hen, hlac-henst, blac-hertd, 

hnz. hlac-hen' dst, blac-hens. 

ht, hts. pic-Wd, a-ct, a-cts, roc-Wd, kic-&W. 

Ics. mo~cks, ra-chs, pi-chs, de-chs. 



ARTICULATION. 47 

OOMBmATIOWS. EXAMPLES. 

pi, plst, pld, pldst, pl-xick, rip-pie, ivp-pVst, rvp-pVd, 

plz. ri-p-pFdst, rijyples. 

pt, pts. G\vp-ped, cr j-pt, cry-pis, str&y-ped. 

ps, pst. ro-pes, cli-ps, cliip-p' st, TiTp-pecPst. 

pth,pths. de-pth, de-pths. 

tl, tlst, tld, tldst, tlz. set-^6, set-tVst, set-tPd, set-tFdst, 

set-ties. 

ts, tst. mee-ts, pe-te, -pe-tfst, rote, rot-tf st. 



48 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER II. 

RESPIRATION. 

The ability to speak well is in a great degree dependent 
on appropriate respiration. Without a sufficient supply 
of breath the vocal organs cannot perform their func- 
tions properly. 

Ignorance of the right method of using the lungs and 
the larynx in reading and speaking has produced more 
cases of pulmonary consumption than all other causes 
combined. 

Exercises for acquiring control of these organs should, 
then, first claim the attention of the student of Elocution. 

SECTION I. 
POSITION. 

Preparatory to every vocal exercise the pupil should 
place the body in a perfectly erect and easy position, 
the chest fully projected, the shoulders thrown backward 
and downward, the head erect, the body supported on 
the left foot, the right foot placed a little in advance of 
the left, and forming with it an angle of forty-five de- 
grees, the hands hanging naturally by the side. 

SECTION II. 
I. Exercise in Breathing. 

Inhale very slowly until the lungs are inflated to their 
utmost capacity, then, after retaining the breath for a 
moment, as slowly exhale. 



RESPIRATION. 49 

Repeat this exercise at least a dozen times. In the 
act of inhalation carefully avoid a harsh, aspirate sound, 
•as no habit is more injurious to the vocal organs. 

II. Exercise in Effusive Yocal Breathing. 

Inflate the lungs as before, then exhale in a prolonged 
sound of the letter h. 

In the exhalation give out only sufficient breath to 
keep the sound audible. Continue each exercise as long 
as you can sustain the breath, and repeat at least a dozen 
times. 

This exercise is called Effusive Breathing, because the 
breath is gently sent forth from the organs. 

III. Exercise in Expulsive Yocal Breathing. 

Inhale the breath rapidly but quietly, and emit it 
suddenly and forcibly in the sound of the letter h. In 
this exercise the breath is expelled from the organs 
forcibly, and it is known as expulsive breathing. 

Repeat a number of times. 

IV. Exercise in Explosive Yocal Breathing. 

Draw in the breath very quickly, and send it forth 
abruptly and violently from the organs in the sound of 
the letter h. 

This exercise is called explosive breathing because 
the breath is violently and abruptly emitted from the 
organs. 

Repeat at least a dozen times. 



50 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER ni. 

VOICE. 

Voice is sound produced by the passage of the air 
through the larynx and cavities of the mouth and nose. 

It is not the purpose of the present work to give a 
detailed description of the mechanical movements of 
the organs, and the action of the air upon them in 
the production of vocal sound, nor is such a knowledge 
necessary to excellence in vocal expression. The stu- 
dent who desires to investigate this subject will find it 
fully discussed in works upon physiology. 

An analysis of the attributes and accidents of voice, 
and their effect on expression, is more properly the work 
of the student of elocution, and to this his attention is 
invited. 

SECTION I. 

ATTRIBUTES OF VOICE. 

Having acquired by the preceding exercises control 
of the organs of articulation and respiration, attention is 
now directed to those attributes of voice which give 
expression to thought and feeling irres]:>ective of articu- 
late utterance. 

An analysis of the human voice exhibits six essential 
elements, namely : Form, Quality, Force, Stress, Pitch, 
and Movement. These are called attributes, because in 
the utterance of every sentence each of these elements 
is found. 



ATTRIBUTES OF VOICE. 51 

We may read or speak without employing Quantity, 
long or short, Inflection, rising or falling, Waves, up- 
ward or downward, Cadence, Pauses, Emphasis, Climax, 
or Grouping ; but it is impossible to utter a sentence 
without exhibiting Form, either effusive, expulsive, or 
explosive, Quality, pure or impure, Force, in some 
degree, Stress, of some kind, Pitch — some place upon 
the musical scale — and Movement of some rate. 

And it is by the various combinations of these attri- 
butes that we give appropriate expression to the differ- 
ent forms of thought and emotion. 

A knowledge, then, of their effect on utterance, and the 
ability to give at pleasure any desired combination, is 
indispensable to excellence in reading and speaking. To 
this end it will be necessary to consider each attribute 
separately, determine its characteristic effect on expres- 
sion, and present exercises by which control of it may be 
acquired. 

SECTION II. 

FORM OF VOICE. 

Form Of voice is the manner in which the sound is 
sent forth from the vocal organs. 

. This must be either Effusive, Expulsive, or Explosive, 
as every sound, whether produced by the vocal organs 
or by any other means, must be in one of these forms. 

SECTION in. 

EFFUSIVE FORM. 

Effusive is that form of voice in which the sound 
issues from the organs in a tranquil manner, without 
abruptness either in the beginning or ending. 

The breath is not sent forth by any forcible effort, 
but is gently effused into the surrounding air. 



52 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

To acquire control of this form of voice practice the 
following exercises as directed: 

Inhale a large volume of air before uttering each 
sound. In the formation of the sound give out only 
sufficient breath to produce the required tone. 

Repeat each of the elements, continuing the sound as 
long as you can sustain the breath. 

Effusive Form — First Exercise. 
1. e, as heard in eve, mete. 



2. 


e, 


u 


ermine, earth. 


3. 


a, 


u 


ale, may. 


4, 


a, 


u 


air, care. 


5. 


a, 


a 


arm, farm, 


6. 


o, 


it 


order, form. 


7. 


o, 


« 


old, note. 


8. 


55, 


u 


ooze, moon. 



Repeat each of the following words several times in a 
moderately prolonged tone, being careful to avoid all 
abruptness both in the beginning and close of the 
utterance. 



Effusive Form- 


-Second Exercise. 


All, 


arm, 


our, 


use, 


hall, 


harm, 


oil, 


duty, 


fall, 


farm, 


vow, 


beauty, 


awful, 


calm, 


howl, 


amuse, 


pall, 


afar, 


balm, 


refuse. 



The effusive is the appropriate form of voice for the 
expression of pathos, solemnity, sublimity, grandeur, 
reverence, adoration, devotion, awe, and amazement, of 
a quiet and tranquil character. 

The following selections should be practiced with 
special reference to the effusive form. 



EFFUSIVE FOKM. 53 

Examples : I. Pathos. 

[From " The Death Bed."— Hood.] 

We watched her breathing through the night, 

Her breathing soft and low, 
As in her breast the wave of life 

Kept heaving to and fro. 

II. Solemnity. 

[From "Gratitude."] 

When all thy mercies, my God, 

My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view, I'm lost 

In wonder, love, and praise. 

III. Reverence and Adoration. 

[From " The Morning Hymn in Paradise." — Milton."] 

These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good, 

Almighty I Thine this universal frame, 

Thus wondrous fair. Thyself how wondrous then ! 

Unspeakable ! who sitt'st above these heavens, 

To us invisible, or dimly seen 

Midst these thy lowest works. 

IV. Awe and Amazement. 

[From "Macbeth." — ShaTcspeare.] 

Now o'er the one half world 
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 
• The curtained sleep : now witchcraft celebrates 
Pale Hecate's offerings ; and withered murder, 
Alarmed by his sentinel, the wolf, 
Whose howl's his watch, thus, with his stealthy pace, 
Toward his design moves like a ghost. 

The effusive gives a softness and smoothness to the 
tone, which, in the expression of pathos, solemnity, de- 
votion, and reverence, produces one of the most pleasing 
effects in delivery, calling out at once all the purer and 



54 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

nobler feelings, and fitting the mind for the contempla- 
tion of the higher and holier scenes, while the absence 
of this property of utterance renders the reading of the 
most sublime passages in prayer and praise harsh and 
unpleasant. 

In the utterance of the milder forms of awe and horror 
the effusive gives intensity to the expression. 

SECTION IV. 
EXPULSIVE FORM. 

The expulsive is that form of voice in which the sound 
is emitted from the organs in an abrupt and forcible 
manner. 

The breath, by a vigorous inward and upward action 
of the abdominal muscles, is sent forth from the lungs to 
the vocal organs, where it is converted into an expulsive 
sound. 

To acquire control of this form of voice great care 
should be taken while practicing the exercises to main- 
tain a vigorous play of the abdominal, dorsal and inter- 
costal muscles, to keep the head erect and the shoulders 
well back. 

Repeat the following exercises in a clear, full, expul- 
sive form of voice. 

Expulsive Form — First Exercise. 



1. 


e, as 


heard 


in end, ell. 


2. 


a, 


tt 


add, have. 


3. 


a, 


u 


ask, dance. 


4. 


o, 


u 


odd, not. 


5. 


h 


a 


ill, fin. 


6. 


u , 


« 


up, study. 


V. 


u » 


u 


pull, push. 



EXPULSIVE FORM. 55 



Expulsive Form- 


-Second Exercise. 


Add, on, 


air, 


end, 


eve, up, 


no, 


fair, 


orb, awful, 


law, 


live, 


dare, own, 


die, 


few, 


ice, send, 


fool, 


fame, 


art, ale, 


arm, 


isle, 


sink, read, 


heard, 


swim, 


brave, down, 


this, 


slave. 



The expulsive is the appropriate form of voice for the 
utterance of narrative, descriptive, didactic, animated, 
argumentative, and impassioned thought as expressed 
in scientific and literary lectures, doctrinal and practical 
sermons, senatorial, political, and judicial speeches, and 
formal orations. 

Examples: I. Narration. 

[From " A Soldier's Funeral." — A. H. Quint.] 

The first funeral at which I officiated was at Harper's Ferry, while 
our regiment occupied that post. There had been brought into our 
hospital a soldier of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania — then on its way 
home at the expiration of its three months' service — whom that regi- 
ment left with, us one afternoon as they passed through the place. 
That evening, as I passed at a late hour through the hospital, I no- 
ticed this new face, and, on inquiry, found the facts. He was sick 
with typhoid fever — very sick. Little more than a boy in years, lie 
was to me, then, nameless, not one of ours ; but he was a suffering 
soldier, and may G-od bless every one of such ! 

II. Didactic. 

[From "Industry and Eloquence." — Wirt."] 

In the ancient republics of Greece and Eome oratory was a neces- 
sary branch of a finished education. A much smaller proportion of 
the citizens were educated than among us, but of these a much 
larger number became orators. No man could hope for distinction or 



56 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

influence and yet slight this art. The commanders of their armies 
were orators as well as soldiers, and ruled as well by their rhetorical 
as by their military skill. There was no trusting with them, as with 
us, to a natural facility, or the acquisition of an accidental fluency by 
occasional practice. 

III. Argumentative Oratorical. 

[From " Our Duty to our Country.'"— Story.] 

We stand the latest, and, if we fail, probably the last, experiment 
of self-government by the people. We have begun it under circum- 
stances of the most auspicious nature. We are in the vigor of youth. 
Our growth has never been checked by the oppressions of tyranny ; 
our constitutions have never been enfeebled by the vices or luxuries 
of the Old World. Such as we are we have been from the beginning 
— simple, hardy, intelligent, accustomed to self-government and to 
self-respect. The Atlantic rolls between us and any formidable foe. 
Within our territory, stretching through many degrees of latitude and 
longitude, we have the choice of many products and many means of 
independence. The government is mild, the press is free, religion is 
free ; knowledge reaches, or may reach, every home. What fairer 
prospect of success could be presented ? What means more adequate 
to accomplish the sublime end? What more is necessary than for 
the people to preserve what they have themselves created-? Already 
has the age caught the spirit of our institutions. It has already 
ascended the Andes and snuffed the breezes of both oceans ; it has 
infused itself into the life-blood of Europe, and warmed the sunny 
plains of France and the low lands of Holland ; it has touched the 
philosophy of Germany and the North, and, moving onward to the 
South, has opened to Greece the lessons of her better days. Can it 
be that America, under such circumstances, can betray herself? Can 
it be that she is to be added to the catalogue of republics, the in- 
scription upon whose ruins is, They were, but they are not? Forbid 
it, my countrymen ! Forbid it, Heaven ! 

IV. Impassioned. 

[From "Eloquence of James Otis." — Mrs. Childs.] 

The flame of liberty is extinguished in Greece and Eome, but the 
light of its glowing embers is still bright and strong on the shores of 
America. Actuated by its sacred influence, we will resist unto death ; 
but we will not countenance anarchy and misrule. The wrongs that a 
desperate community have heaped upon their enemies shall be amply 



EXPLOSIVE FORM. 57 

and speedily repaired. Still it may be well for some proud men to 
remember that a fire is lighted in these colonies which one breath of 
their king may kindle into such a flame that the blood of all England 
cannot extinguish it. 

The expulsive form gives energy, life, and spirit to 
all direct and forcible speaking. Divested of this form 
of voice the manly and powerful eloquence of Demos- 
thenes, Chatham, Webster and Clay would become 
ridiculous and contemptible. 

No exercise is more beneficial for strengthening and 
developing the voice than practice on the expulsive form. 

SECTION V. 
EXPLOSIVE FORM. 

The explosive is that form of voice in which the sound 
bursts forth instantaneously from the organs. 

It resembles in suddenness the crack of a pistol or the 
report of a rifle. 

" This form of voice proceeds from a violent and 
abrupt exertion of the abdominal muscles acting on the 
diaphragm, and thus discharging a large volume of air 
previously inhaled. The breath in this process is, as it 
were, dashed against the glottis or lips of the larynx, 
causing a loud and instantaneous explosion." 

" In the act of ' explosion ' the chink of the glottis is 
for a moment closed, and resistance at first offered to the 
escape of the breath by a firm compression of the lips of 
the larynx and downward pressure of the epiglottis. 

After this instant pressure and resistance follows the 
explosion, caused by the appulsive-act of the abdominal 
muscles and diaphragm, propelling the breath with pow- 
erful and irresistible volume on the glottis and epiglottis, 
which at length give way and suffer the breath to escape 



58 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

with a loud and sudden report of a purely explosive 
character." 

Practice the following elements and words with all 
the force and abruptness you can command. Inflate the 
lungs before each effort, and then expel the breath vio- 
lently as directed above. 

In connection with these exercises practice the me- 
chanical act of coughing. 

Explosive Form — First Exercise. 
1. i, as heard in it, ill. 



2. 


§ , 


u 


let, met. 


3. 


a, 


a 


add, lad. 


4. 


a, 


u 


ask, task. 


5. 


o> 


a 


odd, clod. 


6. 


u > 


a 


pull, full. 


7. 


% 


ii 


up, cup. 



Explosive Form — Second Exercise. 



In, 


art, 


on, 


ebb, 


air, 


up, 


all, 


let, 


back, 


hacked, 


trip, 


skip, 


down, 


flit, 


stick, 


stuck, 


mock, 


old, 


lie, 


down. 



The explosive is the appropriate form for the expres- 
sion of joy, gladness, intense passion, as anger, scorn, 
hatred, revenge, the sudden cry of terror and alarm, and 
the shout of courage and defiance. 

Examples : I. Ecstatic Joy. 
Joy, joy ! shout aloud for joy ! 



EXPLOSIVE FORM. 59 

II. Anger AisT) Defiance. 

[From " The Parting of Marmion and Douglas." — Scott.] 

And if thou said'st I am not peer 
To any lord in Scotland here, 
Lowland or highland, far or near, 
Lord Angus, thou hast lied. 

III. Scorn. 

[From " Seminole's Defiance."— Patten.'] 

I loathe you with my bosom ; 

I scorn you with mine eye ; 
I'll taunt you with my latest breath, 

And fight you till I die. 

IV. Courage. 

[From " "Warren's Address." — Pierpont.] 

Stand ! the ground's your own, my braves : 
"Will ye give it up to slaves ? 
Will ye look for greener graves ? 

Hope ye mercy still ? 
"What's the mercy despots feel ? 
Hear it in that battle-peal ! 
Read it on yon bristling steel ! 

Ask it, ye who wilL 

No exercise is so effectual for imparting energy to the 
tone or strengthening weak organs as practice on the 
explosive form of voice. Combined with the expulsive, 
in argumentative discourse, it gives life and energy to 
the utterance. 

Murdoch and Russell in their excellent work, " Yocal 
Culture," say : " This form of the human voice (the ex- 
plosive) is one of the most impressive in its effects. By 
a law of our constitution it acts with an instanta- 
neous shock on the sympathetic nerve, and rouses the 



60 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

sensibility of the whole frame ; it summons to instant 
action all the senses, and in the thrill which it sends 
from nerve to brain we feel its awakening and inciting 
power over the mind." 

With the rapidity of lightning it penetrates every 
faculty and sets it instinctively on the alert. 

It seems designed by nature as the note of alarm to 
the citadel of the soul. 

SECTION VI. 
QUALITY OF VOICE. 

Quality Of voice is the purity or impurity of the tone. 
The different qualities are, Pure Tone, Orotund, Aspi- 
rate, Pectoral, Guttural, Oral and Nasal. 

Of these the first two are the appropriate qualities for 
the expression of unimpassioned forms of thought and 
the higher and nobler feelings and emotions. 

The Aspirate, Pectoral and Guttural are the natural 
language of the malignant feelings and passions. Even 
the lower animals express their feelings of hate, anger, 
rage in the aspirate, pectoral and guttural qualities, as 
heard in the hissing of the serpent, the low pectoral 
growl of the wolf, and the deep guttural roar of the 
tiger. 

In continuous, unimpassioned discourse these impure 
qualities are often employed to give emphasis to certain 
words and phrases. 

The Nasal and Oral are used chiefly in personation, 
mimicry and burlesque. 

Each of these qualities admit of the three forms al- 
ready presented, and will be discussed in their relations 
to the Effusive, Expulsive and Explosive. 



PUKE TONE. 61 

SECTION VII. 
PURE TONE. 

Pure tone is that quality of voice in which all the 
breath is converted into a clear, round, smooth, musical 
sound, with the resonance in the back part of the roof 
of the mouth. It is free from all aspirate, oral, nasal, or 
other impure qualities. 

Owing to our defective system of education this 
quality of voice, so peculiar to childhood, is rarely pos- 
sessed in more mature age. 

The restraining influences of the school-room tend 
directly to destroy all the natural purity and sweetness 
of the voice. 

To restore this natural quality practice daily the fol- 
lowing exercises with the strictest attention to the purity 
of the tone. 

That the highest advantage may be derived from 
these exercises special regard should be given to the 
quality. 

Repeat a number of times each of the following ele- 
ments in the effusive form with the utmost purity of 
tone. It will be noticed that the object of the exercise 
on page 52 was to cultivate form of voice without 
reference to quality or other attributes. The special 
object of this exercise is to cultivate purity of tone, 
and at the same time to retain and strengthen what 
was gained by the exercises under form. It should be 
constantly borne in mind that, in connection with each 
additional exercise, attention should be given to all the 
previous exercises, so that when the exercises in Move- 
ment of Voice are presented, (the last exercises under 
the attributes,) they will be not only exercises in Move- 



62 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

ment, but also in Form, Quality, Force, Stress, and 
Pitch. 



Pure Tone, Effusive Form — First Exercise 


1. e, as heard 


in me, see. 


2. a, " 


ale, pale. 


3. a, " 


air, pare. 


4. a, " 


father, arm. 


5. a, " 


all, talk. 


6. o, 


no, old. 


1. 55, « 


moon, food. 



Repeat the words as directed above, only with less 
prolongation * 

Pure Tone, Effusive Form — Second Exercise. 

All, fall, breathe, softly, 

soldiers, peacefully, brother, mother, 

gently, wondrous, bow, heaven, 

beauteous, brow, sleep, pall. 

Pure tone in the effusive form is the appropriate 
quality of voice for the utterance of pathetic, solemn, 
serious and tranquil thought, not mingled with grandeur 
and sublimity, where the purpose is to awaken the feel- 
ings rather than to enlighten the mind. 

Examples : I. Solemnity. 

Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 

[From " An Evening Revery." — Phebe Cary.] 

One sweetly solemn thought 

Comes to me o'er and o'er ; 

I'm nearer my home to-day 

Than ever I've been before. 



PURE TONE, EFFUSIVE FORM. 63 

IT. Serious Thought. 

Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 

There is often sadness in the tone, 

And a moisture in the eye, 
And a trembling sorrow in the voice 

When we bid a last good-bye ; 
But sadder far than this, I ween, 

0, sadder far than all 
Is the heart-throb with which we strain 

To catch the last footfall. — Anon. 

III. Tranquillity. 

Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 

My soul to-day 

Is far away, 
Sailing the Yesuvian Bay ; 

My winged boat, 

A bird afloat, 
Swims round the purple peaks remote. — T. B. Read. 



Repeat the following elements and words a number 
of times in the Expulsive Form, Pure Tone, with the 
closest attention to the quality of voice : 

Pure Tone, Expulsive Form — First Exercise. 
1. e, as heard in earth, ermine. 



2. a, 


a 


aim, age. 




3. a, 


u 


add, lad. 




4. e, 


it 


ell, end. 




5. o, 


it 


odd, sod. 




6. ii, 


tt 


up, cup. 




Tone, Expulsive Form — Second ] 


£xer< 


jrm, 


put, 


bet, 


let, 



fit, met, up, on, 

back, down, live, victory, 

last, again, friend, think. 



64: SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Pure tone in the expulsive form is the appropriate 
quality of voice ior the delivery of narrative, descriptive, 
and didactic thought, in which the purpose of the speaker 
is more to enlighten the mind than to awaken the feel- 
ings or rouse the passions. 

Examples : I. Narrative, Descriptive. 

Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 
[From "The Blind Preacher."— Wirt.] 

It was one Sunday, as I traveled through the County of Orange, 
that my eye was caught by a cluster of horses tied near a ruinous, 
old wooden house in the forest, not far from the roadside. Having 
frequently seen such objects before in traveling through these States, 
I had no difficulty in understanding that this was a place of religious 
worship. 

Devotion alone should have stopped me to join in the duties of the 
congregation, but I must confess that curiosity to hear the preacher 
of such a wilderness was not the least of my motives. On entering I 
was struck with his preternatural appearance. He was a tall and 
very spare old man ; his head, which was covered with a white linen 
cap, his shriveled hands, and his voice, were all shaking under the in- 
fluence of palsy, and a few moments ascertained to me that he was 
perfectly blind. 

II. Didactic. 

Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 

[From " The Puritans." — Macaulay] 

The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar char- 
acter from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal 
interests. Not content with acknowledging in general terms an 
overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the 
will of the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for 
whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know him, to serve 
him, to enjoy him, was with them the great end of existence. They 
rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects 
substituted for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching 
occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring vail, they 
aspired to gaze full on the intolerable brightness, and to commune 
with him face to face. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial 
distinctions. 



PURE TONE, EXPLOSIVE FORM. 65 

Repeat the following elements and words in the Ex- 
plosive Form, Pure Tone : 

Pure Tone, Explosive Foem — Fiest Exeecise. 





1. i, as heard 


in ill, fill. 






2. % 


it 


up, sup. 






3. e, 


a 


ell, end. 






4. a, 


a 


add, mad. 






5. a, 


a 


ask, task. 






6. o, 


it 


odd, on. 






7.u, 


it ' 


pull, full. 




e Tone, 


Explosive Foem — Second 


Exerc: 


Yon, 


the, 




cup, 


tip, 


on, 


bit, 




end, 


may, 


me, 


no, 




will, 


tap, 


nut, 


fill, 




rat, 


pit. 



Pure tone in its explosive form is the quality appro- 
priate for the expression of ecstatic joy and mirth. 

Examples : I. Ecstatic Jot. 

Pure Tone, Explosive Form. 
[From " The Voice of Spring." — Mrs. Remans.] 

I come, I come ! ye have called me long ; 
I come o'er the mountains with light and song ; 
Ye may trace my step o'er the wak'ning earth, 
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth, 
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass, 
By the green leaves opening as I pass. 

II. Gatetv. 

Pure Tone, Explosive Form. 
[From " Lochinvar." — Scott.] 

O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west ! 
Through all the wide border his steed was the best; 



66 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

And save his good broadsword lie weapon had none ; 
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone. 
So faithful in love r and so dauntless in war, . 
There never was knight like the young Lochinvax. 

The advantages of Pure Tone are twofold — first, to 
the speaker ; second, to the hearer. It is produced with 
less expenditure of breath than any other quality ; its 
effect upon the vocal organs is beneficial rather than 
injurious ; with the same effort it is heard at a greater 
distance than any other quality ; its clear musical prop- 
erties give a distinctness to articulation and an ease 
to utterance grateful to the ear; it produces none of 
the jarring effects experienced in listening to a speaker 
whose voice is harsh, hard, or in any way impure in 
quality. 

SECTION VIII. 

OROTUND. . 

The orotund is that quality of voice in which the 
breath is converted into a full, round, deep, musical 
tone, with the resonance in the upper part of the 
chest. 

It is distinguished from the Pure Tone by a fullness, 
clearness, strength, smoothness, and sub-sonorous quality 
resembling the resonance of certain musical instru- 
ments. 

u In the orotund, volume and purity of tone, to the 
greatest extent of the one and the highest perfec- 
tion of the other, are blended in one vast sphere of 
sound." 

This quality is possessed naturally by very few. 
Even among public speakers it is rarely heard, save in a 
limited degree. Actors and orators of eminence and 



OROTUND, EFFUSIVE FORM. 67 

distinction understand and appreciate the value of the 
orotund, and have spared no pains to obtain control of 
it. It is heard in all their utterance of grand, lofty and 
sublime thoughts. 

Though rarely possessed, it is susceptible of cultiva- 
tion, and may by judicious practice be acquired by 
almost every one. 

Dr. Rush mentions it as the highest perfection of the 
cultivated utterance of the public speaker. 

To acquire control of the orotund, practice the fol- 
lowing exercise with* the freest opening of the vocal 
organs. 

Before repeating each element inhale a large quantity 
of air. Give to each sound all the volume and quantity 
you can command. 

Oeotund, Effusive Form — Fiest Exeecise. 

1. a, as in father, arm. 

2. a, " ask, grass. 

3. a, " all, talk. 

4. 5, " old, note. 

Repeat the words as directed above, carefully observ- 
ing both the Effusive Form and Orotund Quality 

Oeottjnd, Effusive Foem — Second Exeecise. 



Loud, 

long, 

round, 


deep, 

full, 

honor, 


dread, 
broad, 
moon, 


profound, 

sublime, 

endless, 


father, 
soul, 


holy, 
hour, 


roll, 
universe, 


majesty, 
dark, 



torrid, silence, blue, grandeur. 



68 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

The orotund in the effusive form is the quality of 
voice appropriate for the expression of solemnity, sub- 
limity, grandeur and reverence. 

Examples : I. Grandeur and Sublimity. 

Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From the " Apostrophe to the Ocean." — Byroni\ 

Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form 

Glasses itself in tempests ; in all time — 
Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm, 
'Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime, 

Dark, heaving, boundless, endless, and sublime, 
The image of Eternity — the throne 

Of the Invisible ! even from out thy slime 
The monsters of the deep are made : each zone 
Obeys thee : thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. 

II. Sublimity and Reverence. 

Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From " God."— Dwzhavin.'] 

thou Eternal One ! whose presence bright 

All space doth occupy, all motion guide : 
Unchanged through time's all-devastating flight ; 

Thou only G-od ! There is no God beside ! 
Being above all beings ! Mighty One ! 

Whom none can comprehend, and none explore ; 
"Who fill'st existence with thyself alone : 

Embracing all — supporting — ruling o'er ; 

Being whom we call God, and know no more I 

III. Reverence and Solemnity. 

Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From "Psalm CIV."] 

Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord, my God, thou art very great; 
thou art clothed with honor and majesty ; who coverest thyself with 
light as with a garment ; who stretchest out the heavens like a cur- 
tain: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who 
maketh the clouds his chariot ; who walketh upon the wings of the ~ 



OROTUND, EXPULSIVE FORM. 



69 



wind ; who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire ; 
who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed 
forever. 



Repeat the following elements and words in the Ex- 
pulsive Form with the fullest Orotund Quality. Inflate 
the lungs fully before each effort. 

Orotund, Expulsive Form — First Exercise. 
1. a, as heard in ale, hale. 



2. a, 

3. a, 

4. a, 

5. I, 

6. 6, 

7. ti, 



add, have, 
air, share, 
what, wander, 
ice, fine, 
old, bold, 
use, tube. 



Orotund, Expulsive Form — Second Exercise. 



Sink, 

die, 

this, 

even, 

dissever. 



sword, 

mercy, 

army, 

drawn, 

revive, 



down, 

slave, 

spurn, 

above, 

induce, 



live, 

read, 

head, 

never, 

amuse, 



accuse, ambition, present, forever. 

The orotund in the expulsive form is the quality 
appropriate for the delivery of earnest, bold, grand and 
lofty thought in the form of argumentative and ora- 
torical speeches and sermons, and impassioned poetry. 

Examples : I. Grand and Lofty Sentiment. 

Orotund, Expulsive Form. 
[From "Supposed Speech of John Adams." — Webster.] 

Read this declaration at the head of the army : every sword will 
be drawn from its scabbard, and. the solemn vow uttered to maintain 



70 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

it, or perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit ; re- 
ligion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling 
around it, resolved to stand with it or fall with it. Send it to the 
public halls ; proclaim it there. Let them hear it who heard the roar 
of the enemy's cannon ; let them see it who saw their brothers and 
their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexing- 
ton and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support. 

II. Oratorical Appeal. 

Orotund, Expulsive Form. 
[From " Speech in Virginia Convention." — Patrick Henry.] 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. G-entlemen may cry 
Peace ! peace ! but there is no peace. The war is actually begun ! 
The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the 
clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the field ! 
"Why stand we here idle ? "What is it that gentlemen wish ? "What 
would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- 
chased at the price of chains and slavery ? Eorbid it, Almighty God ! 
I know not what course others may take ; but as for me, give me 
liberty, or give me death ! 

III. Earnest Exhortation. 

Orotund, Expulsive Form. 
[From "Motives of the Gospel." — Dwight.~] 

Ministers proclaim to you the glad tidings of great joy, and point 
out to you the path to heaven. The Sabbath faithfully returns its 
mild and sweet seasons of grace that earthly objects may not engross 
your thoughts and prevent your attention to immortality. The sanc- 
tuary unfolds its doors and invites you to enter in and be saved. 

The Gospel still shines to direct your feet and to quicken your pur- 
suit of the inestimable prize. Saints wait with fervent hope of renew- 
ing their joy over your repentance. Angels spread their wings to 
conduct you home. The Father holds out the golden scepter of for- 
giveness that you may touch and live. The Son died on the cross, 
ascended to heaven, and intercedes before the throne of mercy that 
you may be accepted. The Spirit of grace and truth descends with 
his benevolent influence to allure and persuade you. While all 
things, and God at the head of all things, are thus kindly and sol- 
emnly employed to encourage you in the pursuit of this inestimable 
good, will you forget that you have souls which must be saved or lost ? 

"Will you forget that the only time of salvation is the present ? that 



OROTUND, EXPLOSIVE FORM. 71 

beyond the grave there is no G-ospel to be preached ? that there no 
offers of life are to be made ? that no Redeemer will there expiate 
your sins, and no forgiving God receive your souls ? 

IV. Impassioned Poetic. 

Orotund, Expulsive Form. 

[From "Launching of Ship." — Longfellow.] 

Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State ! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! 
Humanity, with all its fears, 
With all its hopes of future years, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
We know what Master laid thy keel, 
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
In what a forge, and what a heat, 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope. 

Eear not each sudden sound and shock; 

'Tis of the wave, and not the rock ; 

'Tis but the napping of the sail, 

And not a rent made by the gale. 

In spite of rock and tempest roar, 

In spite of false lights on the shore, 

Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 

Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee: 

Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 

Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 

Are all with thee — are all with thee. 



Repeat the following elements and words in the Ex- 
plosive Form, fullest Orotund Quality. Be careful to 
give each exercise the suddeu, startling explosive. 

Orotund, Explosive Form — First Exercise. 

1. a, as heard in add, fat. 

2. g, " end, met. 

3. i, " ill, fin. 



72 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 





4. 


o, as heard 


in odd, not. 






5. 


«, 


us, tub. 




OTUND 


Explosive Form — Second 


EXERC] 


Up, 




but, 


study, 


have, 


random, 


end, 


add, 


odd, 


done, 




order, 


put, 


push, 


lie, 




admit, 


not, 


sit, 


back, 




neck, 


pick, 


sick, 


hack, 




mock, 


tuck, 


luck. 



The orotund in the explosive form is the quality- 
appropriate for the expression of courage, warning, 
alarm, terror and abrupt exclamation. 

Examples: I. Courage. 

Orotund, Explosive Form. 
[From " Marco Bozzaris." — Halleck.] 

Strike ! till the last armed foe expires ; 
Strike ! for your altars and your fires ; 
Strike ! for the green graves of your sires, 
God, and your native land I 

II. Terror. 

Orotund, Explosive Form. 

[From " Marco Bozzaris. M — Hatteck.] 

To arms 1 they come ! the Greek ! the Greek ! 

III. Alarm. 

Orotund, Explosive Form. 
[From " The Bells."— Poe.] 

Hear the loud alarum bells — 
Brazen bells ! 
"What a tale of terror now their turbulency tells ! 
In the startled ear of night 
How they scream out their affright ! 



OROTUND, EXPLOSIVE FORM. 73 

Tob much horrified to speak, 
They can only shriek, shriek, 
Out of tune, 
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, 
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire, 
Leaping higher, higher, higher, 
With a desperate desire, 
And a resolute endeavor, 
Now — now to sit, or never, 
By the side of the pale-faced moon. 
the bells, bells, bells 1 
What a tale their terror tells 
Of despair ! 
How they clang, and clash, and roar ! 
What a horror they outpour 
On the bosom of the palpitating air 1 
Yet the ear, it fully knows, 
By the twanging 
And the clanging, 
How the danger ebbs and flows ; 
Yet the ear distinctly tells, 
In the jangling 
And the wrangling, 
How the danger sinks and swells, 
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells — 
Of the bells— 
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells — 
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells 1 

The orotund is fuller in volume and purer in quality 
than the common voice ; it is more musical in tone ; it 
is more efficient in the production of long quantity ; it 
is more under command ; it is freer from all impurities ; 
it is, in short, the only quality appropriate for the so- 
lemnity of the Church service, the grandeur and energy 
of the oration, and the majesty and sublimity of Shak- 
speare and Milton. 

It must not, however, be imagined that the orotund, 
when once acquired, is to entirely supersede the common 



74 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

voice. Students of Elocution and public speakers fre- 
quently render themselves ridiculous, and the study of 
Elocution disgusting, by parading their powers of oro- 
tund on all occasions. Such exhibitions resemble 

" Ocean into tempest tossed 
To waft a feather or to drown a fly." 

Except in the utterance of grand, lofty, and sublime 

thought, the Pure Tone should form the basis of 

utterance. 

SECTION IX. 

ASPIRATE. 

The aspirate is that quality of voice in which the 
breath is sent forth from the organs without being con- 
verted into vocal sound. The whisper is the perfection 
of the aspirate quality. 

Like the Pure Tone and Orotund, it has its effusive, 
expulsive and explosive forms. 

To acquire control of this quality, practice in a whis- 
pered tone the elements and words and sentences in 
which the element h predominates. 

Aspirate, Effusive Form — First Exercise. 

1. e, as heard in me, eve. 

2. a, " fate, gray. 

3. 6, " old, note. 

4. ti, " use, lute. 

5. oo, " moon, food. 

6. I, " ice, fine. 

Aspirate, Effusive Form — Second Exercise. 
Hope, home, have, house, 

high, host, heaven, hand, 

had, heart, hear, huge, 

hum, think, thrust, thousand. 



75 

The aspirate in the effusive form is the quality ap- 
propriate for the expression of secret thought, sup- 
pressed fear and profound repose. 

Combined with the orotund, the aspirate intensifies 
the expression of sublimity, awe, reverence and amaze- 
ment. 

It is in this combined form that the aspirate will be 
of the greatest practical advantage to the general 
student. 

Examples : I. Stillness. 

Aspirate, Effusive Form. 

[From "Dying Bequest." — Mrs. Remans.] 

Leave me ! thy footstep with, its lightest sound, 

The very shadow of thy waving hair, 
"Wakes in my soul a feeling too profound, 

Too strong, for aught that lives and dies to bear ; 
bid the conflict cease ! 

II. Peofound Repose. 

Aspirate, Effusive Form. 
[From "Stillness of Night."— Byron.] 
All heaven and earth are still, though not in sleep, 

But breathless, as we grow when feeling most, 
And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep ; 

All heaven and earth are still : from the high host 

Of stars to the lulled lake and mountain coast, 
All is concentrated in a life intense, 

Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf, is lost, 
But hath a part of being, and a sense 
Of that which is of all Creator and Defense. 

HI. Sublimity and Reveeence. 

Aspirate, Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From a Bussian Hymn.— Browning.] 

Thou breathest, and the obedient storm is still ; 

Thou speakest ; silent the submissive wave : 
Man's shattered ship the rushing waters fill, 

And the hushed billows roll across his grave. 



76 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Sourceless and endless God ! Compared to thee, 
Life is a shadowy, momentary dream ; 

And time, when viewed through thy eternity, 
Less than the mote of morning's golden beam. 



IV. Sublimity and Awe. 

Aspirate, Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From " The Closing Year.''''— Prentice.'] 

'Tis midnight's holy hour, and silence now 
Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er 
The still and pulseless world. Hark ! on the winds 
The bell's deep tones are swelling — 'tis the knell 
Of the departed year. 

No funeral train 
Is sweeping past ; yet on the stream and wood, 
With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest 
Like a pale, spotless shroud ; the air is stirred 
As by a mourner's sigh ; and on yon cloud, 
That floats so still and placidly through heaven, 
The spirits of the seasons seem to stand — 
Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form, 
And Winter with his aged locks, and breathe, 
In mournful cadences, that come abroad 
Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail, 
A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year, 
Gone from the earth forever. 



Aspirate, Expulsive Form — Exercise. 

Repeat the elements and words on page 74 in the 
expulsive form, aspirate quality. 

The aspirate in the expulsive form is the quality- 
appropriate for the expression of sudden fear, alarm 
and terror. Combined with the orotund, it gives in- 
tensity to awe and horror. 



ASPIRATE, EXPULSIVE FORM. 77 



Examples : I. Alaem and Fear. 

Aspirate, Expulsive Form, 
[From "The Battle of "Waterloo. 1 '— Byron."] 
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb, 
Or whispered with white lips, " The foe ! 
They come 1 they come ! " 

II. Suppressed Command, Fear. 

Aspirate, Expulsive Form. 
[From " Military Command." — Anon^\ 

Soldiers, you are now within a few steps of the enemies' outposts ! 
Our scouts report them as slumbering in parties around their watch- 
fires, and utterly unprepared for our approach. A swift and noiseless 
advance around that projecting rock, and we are upon them — we cap- 
ture them without the possibility of resistance. One disorderly noise 
or motion may leave us at the mercy of their advanced guard. Let 
every man keep the strictest silence under the pain of instant death. 

III. Intense Fear, Awe, and Horror. 

Aspirate, Orotund, Expulsive Form. 
[From " Hamlet."— Shakspeare.] 
Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! 
Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned, 
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, 
Be thy intents wicked or charitable, 
Thou com'st in such a questionable shape 
That I will speak to thee ; I'll call thee Hamlet, 
King, father, royal Dane : answer me : 
Let me not burst in ignorance ! but tell 
"Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, 
Have burst their cerements ! why the sepulcher, 
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urned, 
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws, 
To cast thee up again ! What may this mean, 
That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, 
Revisitest thus the glimpses of the moon, 
Making night hideous : and we fools of nature, 
So horribly to shake our disposition, 
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls ? 
Say, why is this ? wherefore ? what should we do ? 



78 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

Aspirate, Explosive Form — Exeecise. 

Repeat the elements and words on page 74 in the 
explosive form, with aspirate quality. 

The aspirate in the explosive form is the quality of 
voice appropriate for the expression of intense fear, hor- 
ror, awe and dread. Mingled with the orotund, it in- 
tensifies the expressions excited by sudden terror and 
alarm. 

Examples : I. Intense Horror. 

Aspirate, Explosive Form. 
[From "Macbeth."— ShaJcspeare.'] 

Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more 1 
Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep : 
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care, 
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, 
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 
Chief nourisher in life's feast. 

II. Exclamation Caused by Sudden Horror and 
Alarm. 

Aspirate -Orotund, Explosive Form. 
[From "Macbeth."— Shakspeare.] 

Avaunt ! and quit my sight 1 Let the earth hide thee ! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold ; 
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
Which thou dost glare with ! 

"Without command of the aspirate quality it is impos- 
sible to give appropriate expression to the emotions of 
fear, awe, horror, dread, amazement, and similar pas- 
sions. 

The utterance of deep solemnity and sublimity is 
greatly intensified by mingling the aspirate quality with 
the orotund. 

Like all other elements of utterance, it must be prac- 



PECTOKAL, EFFUSIVE. 79 

ticed judiciously or the effect will be injurious rather 
than beneficial. 

SECTION X. 

PECTORAL. 

The pectoral is that quality of voice in which the 
breath, by a rigid and contracted position of the organs 
of speech and muscles of the throat and neck, is con- 
verted into a harsh, husky sound, with the resonance in 
the upper part of the throat. 

This quality of voice is frequently exhibited by per- 
sons whose organs have been injured by strong drink. 

To acquire control of this quality of voice, practice the 
following elements and words in the effusive form, with 
the organs so contracted as to obstruct the passage of 
the air : 

Pectoral, Effusive Form — First Exercise. 
1. a, as heard in ale, pale. 



2. e, " 


me, 


see. 


3. I, " 


ice, 


rice. 


4. o, " 


old, 


bold. 


5. a, " 


use, 


muse. 


ctoral, Effusive Form — Second Exerci 


Hate, despise, 


how, 


fawning, 


publican, Christian, 


flight, 


sight, 


fat, grudge, 


hip, 


lives, 


honor, fear, 


flaws, 


eyes, 


blood, peers, 


glare, 


hence. 



The pectoral, in the effusive form, is the quality ap- 
propriate for the expression of awe, suppressed horror, 
dread, despair and similar passio?is. Like the Aspirate, 






80 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

when combined with the Orotund, it intensifies the ut- 
terance of deep solemnity, sublimity, adoration and 
profound reverence. 

Examples : I. Awe and Hoeeoe. 

Pectoral, Effusive Form. 
[From " Darkness." — Byr on.] 

I had a dream, which was not all a dream. 

The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars 

Did wander, darkling, in the eternal space, 

Kayless and pathless, and the icy earth 

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air. 

Morn came, and went — and came, and brought no day, 

And men forgot their passions, in the dread 

Of this their desolation ; and all hearts 

Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light. 

And they did live by watch-fires ; and the thrones, 

The palaces of crowned kings, the huts, 

The habitations of all things which dwell, 

Were burnt for beacons : cities were consumed, 

And men were gathered round their blazing homes, 

To look once more into each other's face. 

Happy were those who dwelt within the eye 

Of the volcanoes and their mountain torch. 

II. HOEEOE AND DeEAD. 

Pectoral, Effusive Form. 
[From " Macbeth."— Shakspewre.] 

Now o'er the one half world 
Nature seems dead ; and wicked dreams abuse 
The curtained sleep ; now witchcraft celebrates 
Pale Hecate's offerings ; and withered murder, 
Alarumed by his sentinel, the wolf, 
Whose howl's his watch, thus, with his stealthy pace, 
Toward his design 

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm- set earth I 
Hear not my steps, which way they walk ; for fear 
The very stones prate of my whereabout, 
And take the present horror from the time, 
Which now suits with it. 



OROTUND-PECTOKAL, EFFUSIVE. 81 

III. Awe and Deep Solemnity. 

Orotund- Pectoral, Effusive Form. 
[Jacob's Exclamation after his Dream. — Mble.] 

How dreadful is this place ! This is none other than the house of 
God, and the gate of heaven ! 

IV. Awe and Profound Sublimity. 

Orotund-Pectoral, Effusive Form. 
[From the Psalms.] 

Of old Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens 
are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; 
yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou 
change them, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same ; and 
thy years shall have no end. 

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst 
formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting 
thou art G-od. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, "Re- 
turn, ye children of men." 

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is 
past, and as a watch in the night. 

Thou carriest them away as with a flood ; they are as a sleep : in 
the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning 
it flourisheth and groweth up: in the evening it is cut down and 
withereth. 

Pectoral, Expulsive Form — Exercise. 

Repeat the elements and words on page 79 in the 
expulsive form, pectoral quality. 

The pectoral, in the expulsive form, is the quality 
appropriate for the expression of hate, malice, scorn, 
revenge, etc. 

Examples : I. Hatred and Malice. 

Pectoral, Expulsive Form. 
[Prom " Merchant of Venice." — ShakspeareJ] 

How like a fawning publican he looks ! 
I hate him, for he is a Christian ; 
6 



82 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

But more, for that, in low simplicity, 

He lends out money gratis, and brings down 

The rate of usance with us here in Yenice. 

If I can catch him once upon the hip, 

I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him ! 

He hates our sacred nation ; and he rails, 

Even there where merchants most do congregate, 

On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift, 

"Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe 

If I forgive him I 



II. Horror and Terror. 

Pectoral, Expulsive Form. 
[From " Richard pi." — Shakspeare.] 

I have passed a miserable night ! 

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, 
That, as I am a Christian, faithful man, 

1 would not spend another such a night, 
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days ; 
So full of dismal terror was the time ! 

My dream was lengthened after life : 

then began the tempest to my soul ! 

"With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends 
Environed me, and howled in mine ears 
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise, 

1 trembling waked, and, for a season after, 
Could not believe but that I was in hell ; 
Such terrible impression made my dream ! 



III. Scorn and Abhorrence. 

Pectoral, Expulsive Form. 
fMasaniello, in reply to the base suggestions of Genuino.] 

I would that now 
I could forget the monk who stands before me ; 
For he is like the accursed and crafty snake ! 
Hence ! from my sight ! Thou Satan, get behind me I 
Go from my sight ! I hate and I despise thee ! 



83 



Pectoral, Explosive Form — Exercise. 

Practice the elements and words on page 79 in the 
explosive form, with pectoral quality. 

The pectoral in the explosive form is the quality for 
the expression of anger, rage, threatening, defiance, etc. 

It is usually more or less mingled with the aspirate 
and orotund in the expression of these passions. 

Examples: I. Anger and Threatening. 

Pectoral, Explosive Form. 
[From " Cataline's Defiance." — Croty.] 
" Traitor ! " I go ; but I return. This — trial ? 
Here I devote your senate ! I've had wrongs 
To stir a fever in the blood of age, 
Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel. 
This day's the birth of sorrow ! This hour's work 
"Will breed proscriptions ! Look to your hearths, my lords ! 
For there, henceforth, shall sit, for household gods, 
Shapes hot from Tartarus ! aU shames and crimes ! 
Wan treachery, with his thirsty dagger drawn ; 
Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup ; 
Naked rebellion, with the torch and ax, 
Making his wild sport of your blazing thrones ; 
Till anarchy comes down on you like night, 
And massacre seals Rome's eternal grave 1 

II. Hatred and Rage. 

Pectoral, Explosive Form. 
[From " Paradise Lost." — Milton.] 

Be then his love accursed ! Since love or hate, 

To me alike, it deals eternal woe. 

Nay, cursed be thou ! since against his thy will 

Chose freely what it now so justly rues. 

Me miserable ! which way shall I fly ? 

Infinite wrath and infinite despair ! 

Which way I fly is hell, myself am hell ; 

And in the lowest deep, a lower deep 

Still threatens to devour me, opens wide, 

To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven ! 



84 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

III. Anger and Defiance. 

Pectoral, Aspirate, Orotund, Explosive Form. 
[From "Seminole's Defiance." — Patten.] 
Blaze, with your serried columns ! 

I will not bend the knee ! 
The shackles ne'er again shall bind 

The arm which now is free. 
I've mailed it with the thunder, 

When the tempest muttered low ; 
And where it falls, ye well may dread 

The lightning of its blow ! 

The pectoral, like the aspirate, is the natural lan- 
guage of intense passion. Without control of this 
quality of voice many of the finest passages of the 
Bible, Shakspeare, and Milton, cannot be impressively- 
uttered. 

Emphasis not unfrequently requires the use of the 
pectoral quality. Great care will be required on the 
part of the pupil that the too frequent use of this quality 
do not injure the Pure Tone and Orotund. 

SECTION XI. 
GUTTURAL. 

The guttural is that quality of voice in which the 
sound is sent forth from the organs in a rough, harsh, 
discordant tone, with the resonance in the lower part of 
the throat. It resembles in quality the growling utter- 
rance of the lower animals. To cultivate this quality 
of voice practice the elements and words with a mumed, 
harsh, smothered tone. 

Guttural, Effusive Form — First Exercise. 

1. 1, as heard in lull, fill. 

2. r, " round, rise. 

3. g, " give, hag. 



GUTTURAL, EFFUSIVE. 85 

Guttural, Effusive Form — Second Exercise. 



Revenge, 


hinder, 


mocked, 


losses, 


cooled, 


gulped, 


enemies, 


bargains, 


hates, 


gratitude, 


harshness, 


arose, 


despise, 


lives, 


dies, 


million. 



The guttural in the effusive form is the quality ap- 
propriate for the expression of settled hate, malice, loath- 
ing and contempt. 

Examples : I. Settled Hate and Malice. 

Guttural, Effusive Form. 
[From "Merchant of Venice. 1 '— Shakspeare.~\ 

I'll have my bond : I will not hear thee speak : 

I'll have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 

I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fool, 

To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield 

To Christian intercessors. Follow not ; 

I'll have no speaking ; I will have my bond. 

II. Loathing and Contempt. 

Guttural, Effusive Form. 
[From " Merchant of Venice." — Shakspeare.] 

Yes, to smell pork: to eat of the habitation which your prophet, 
the Nazarite, conjured the devil into. I will buy with you, sell with 
you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following ; but I will not 
eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. 

Guttural, Expulsive Form — Exercise. 

Repeat the elements and words of last exercise in the 
expulsive form, guttural quality. 

The guttural in the expulsive form is appropriate 
for the expression of deep-seated revenge, settled rage, 
intense loathing, and similar malignant passions. 



86 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Examples : I. Deep-Seated Revenge. 

Guttural, Expulsive Form. 
[Prom " Merchant of Venice."— Shakspeare.] 

To bait fish withal : if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my re- 
venge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million: 
laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, 
thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated my enemies; and 
what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes ? Hath not 
a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions ? Fed 
with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same 
diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same 
winter and summer, as a Christian is ? If you prick us, do we not 
bleed ? if you tickle us, do we not laugh ? if you poison us, do we 
not die ? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge ? If we are like 
you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a 
Christian, what is his humility? Revenge ! If a Christian wrong a 
Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? "Why, 
revenge I The villainy you teach me I will execute ! and it shall go 
hard but I will better the instruction ! 

Guttural, Explosive Form — Exercise. 

Repeat the elements and words on pages 85, 86 in the 
explosive form, guttural quality. 

The guttural in the explosive form is the language 
of intense anger, hate and detestation. 

Example : Intense Hate, Loathing and Anger. 

Guttural, Explosive Form. 
[From " Seminole's Defiance."— Pa ttm.~[ 

I loathe you with my bosom ! I scorn you with mine eye ! 
And I'll taunt you with my latest breath, and fight you till I die ! 
I ne'er will ask for quarter, and I ne'er will be your slave ; 
But I'll swim the sea of slaughter till I sink beneath the wave I 

The guttural is only employed in the expression of 
the more violent forms of the malignant passions. 

In the utterance of these it is powerful in its effect 



OEAL QUALITY. 87 

over the mind and heart. Practiced moderately, its 
effect on the vocal organs is beneficial; but if carried 
too far injurious. 

SECTION XII. 
ORAL. 

The oral is that quality of voice in which the sound 
is sent forth from the organs in a thin, feeble tone, with 
the resonance in the forward part of the mouth. 

It is heard in the utterance of persons in a feeble state 
of health, and frequently by those who are afflicted with 
affectation. 

But little difficulty will be experienced in producing 
this quality of voice sufficiently perfect for practical 
purposes. 

The great difficulty with most public speakers will be 
to avoid its unconscious use. 

No defect is more common than the improper use of 
the oral tone. 

One or two illustrations will be sufficient for practice. 

Exercises on the elements and words will be unne- 
cessary. 

The oral is the quality of voice appropriate for the 
expression of feebleness, exhaustion and fatigue. 

Examples : I. Feebleness. 

Oral, Effusive Form. 
[From " Little Jim." — Anon.] 

" Mother, the angels, they do smile, and beckon ' Little Jim.' 

I have no pain, dear mother, now ; but 0, I am so dry ! 

Just moisten poor Jim's lips again ; and, mother, don't ye cry." 

With gentle, trembling haste she held the liquid to his lips ; 

He smiled to thank her as he took each little tiny sip — 

" Tell father, when he comes from work, I said good-night to him ; 

And, mother, now I'll go to sleep." Alas 1 poor " Little Jim." 



88 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

II. 

Oral, Expulsive Form. 
[From " "Wounded."— B&o. W. E. Miller^ 

Let me lie down 
Just here in the shade of this cannon-torn tree, 
Here, low on the trampled grass, where I may see 
The surge of the combat, and where I may hear 
The glad cry of victory, cheer upon cheer : 

Let me lie down. 

0, it was grand ! 
Like the tempest we charged, in the triumph to share ; 
The tempest — its fury and thunder were there : 
On, on, o'er intrenchments, o'er living and dead, 
"With the foe underfoot, and our flag overhead : 

0, it was grand ! 

The oral quality of voice is indispensable in the per- 
sonation of characters exhibiting feebleness, weakness, 
languor or sickness. 

Works on Elocution generally ignore altogether the 
Aspirate, Pectoral, Guttural, and Oral, regarding them 
as defects in quality. And for the utterance of ordinary 
thought they are defects, but for the expression of pas- 
sion and emotion they are quite as important as Pure 
Tone and Orotund. 

Without command of these qualities it is impossible 
to express appropriately many of the higher and nobler 
forms of feeling, or any of the baser and malignant 
passions. 

That the student of Elocution may know when to use, 
as well as when to avoid, these qualities, they have been 
presented in detail in their appropriate relations. 

The nasal is that quality of voice in which the sound 
seems to have a resonance in the nasal organs. 

It is used only in mimicry and burlesque, and hence 
no exercises or illustrations are needed. 



FORCE. 89 

SECTION XIII. 
FORCE. 

Force is the degree of intensity with which the sound 
is sent forth from the vocal organs. 

Volume and loudness, though not identical with force, 
are dependent upon it. A full volume is produced by 
energetic or impassioned force with Orotund quality in 
all forms ; great loudness by impassioned force, Pure 
Tone, or Orotund, High Pitch, and in all forms. 

No amount of force can give volume or loudness to 
aspirate quality in any of its forms. 

Volume relates to the amount of space filled with the 
sound, loudness to the distance at which a sound can be 
heard. The low, deep tones of the organ fill a vast 
space, though they would not be heard at a great dis- 
tance. The high, shrill notes of the fife can be heard at 
a great distance, yet they do not have great volume of 
sound. 

Force may, for convenience, be divided into Subdued, 
Moderate, Energetic, and Impassioned. 

These may again be subdivided at pleasure. 

Perfect command of force in all its divisions is indis- 
pensable to excellence in Reading and Speaking. 

To acquire this power the voice must be disciplined 
by cultivation. This may be done by practicing the 
elements, words, and sentences as directed in the follow- 
ing exercise. Repeat each element and word at least a 
dozen times, beginning with the most delicate sound 
that can be uttered in Pure Tone, and gradually increase 
the force until the utmost power of the voice is reached. 

In this exercise be very careful to retain the same 
pitch in the repetition of each element. 



90 SCIEKCE OF ELOCUTION. 

After practicing a number of times on one key change 
the pitch, first two or three notes higher, and then two 
or three notes lower. 

Exercises of this kind practiced for a few minutes 
daily will, in a short time, greatly increase the power 
and vigor of the vocal organs. 

The scale of dots indicates to the eye the exercise 
described above. 

Each dot represents the same word or sound repeated 
with gradually increasing, force. The repetition of the 
same word or sound is preferred to a change of elements, 
as thereby the ear will more readily observe the different 
degrees of force, and detect any change in pitch. 

FoECE FlEST EXEECISE. 

Moderate. Energetic. Impassioned. 




1. a, as heard in ale, aim. 



2. 


a, 


u 


add, have. 


3. 


e, 


« 


eve, mete. 


4. 


h 


a 


ice, fine. 


5. 


o, 


« 


old, note. 


6. 


u , 


u 


use, lute. 


1. 


fi > 


a 


us, tub. 



Foece — Second Exeecise. 

Repeat in the same manner the following words. To 
these may be added numerous others. 

Bar, car, mar, ear, 

fear, hear, ore, lure, 

orb, arm, mire, art, 

fare, dart, turn, part. 



SUBDUED FORCE. 91 

SECTION XJV. 
SUBDUED FORCE. 

Subdued is that degree of force which ranges from 
the slightest sound that can be uitered in Pure Tone to 
the milder tones of ordinary conversation. 

It is the degree of force, in connection with the Pure 
Tone, Effusive Form, appropriate for the expression of 
pathetic, solemn, serious and tranquil thought. 

Examples: I. Pathos. 

Subdued Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 

[From "Burial of Arnold."— Willis.'] 

Tread lightly, comrades ; ye have laid 

His dark locks on his brow ; 
Like life, save deeper light and shade, 

"We'll not disturb them now. 
Tread lightly, for 'tis beautiful, 

That blue-veined eyelids' sleep ; 
Hiding the eye death left so dull, 

Its slumber we will keep. 

II. Solemnity. 

Subdued Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 

[From " Only Waiting." — Anon.'] 
Only waiting till the shadows 

Are a little longer grown ; 
Only waiting till the glimmer 

Of the day's last beam is flown ; 
Till the night of earth is faded 

From the heart once full of day; 
Till the stars of heaven are breaking 

Through the twilight soft and gray. 

Only waiting till the reapers 

Have the last sheaf gathered home, 
For the summer time is faded, 

And the autumn winds have come. 
Quickly, reapers, gather quickly 

The last ripe hours of my heart, 
For the bloom of life is withered, 

And I hasten to depart. 



92 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



III. Tranquillity. 

Subdued Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 
[From "The Heart of the War."— Anon.] 

Peace in the clover-scented air, 

And stars within the dome, 
And underneath, in dim repose, 

A plain New England home. 
"Within a murmur of low tones 

And sighs from hearts oppressed, 
Merging in prayer at last, that brings 

The balm of silent rest. 

SECTION XV. 
MODERATE FORCE. 

Moderate force is the degree of intensity heard in the 
ordinary conversational tones. It is the appropriate 
force, combined with Pure Tone, Expulsive Form, for 
the utterance of narrative, descriptive, didactic and un- 
emotional thought ; w r ith the Orotund, Effusive Form, for 
the utterance of sublimity, reverence and devotion ; and 
with the Orotund, Expulsive Form, for the introduction 
to orations, speeches and oratorical sermo?is. 



Examples : I. Narrative. 

Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expidsive Form. 
[From " The Blacksmith of Eagenbach."— Anon.] 

In the principality of Hohenlohe, now a part of the kingdom of 
"Wirtemberg, is a village called Eagenbach, where, about twenty years 
ago, the following event took place : One afternoon in early autumn, 
in the tavern-room of Eagenbach, several men and women, assembled 
from the village, sat at their ease. The smith formed one of the 
merry company. He was a strong man, with resolute countenance 
and daring mien, but with such a good-natured smile on his lips that 
every one who saw him admired him. His arms were like bars of 
iron, and his fists like a forge-hammer, so that few could equal him in 
strength of body. 



MODERATE FORCE. 93 

II. Descriptive. 

Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 
[From " The Cynic." — Beecher.] 

The Cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and 
never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in dark- 
ness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble 
game. 

The Cynic puts all human actions into only two classes: openly 
bad and secretly bad. AU virtue, and generosity, and disinterested- 
ness, are merely the appearance of good, but selfish at the bottom. 
He holds that no man does a good thing except for profit. The effect 
of his conversation upon your feelings is to chill and sear them ; to 
send you away sour and morose. 

III. Didactic. 

Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 
[From "Talk to the Point"] 

Talk to the point, and stop when you reach it. The faculty 
which some possess of making one idea cover a quire of paper is 
despicable. To fill a volume upon nothing is a credit to nobody, 
though Chesterfield wrote a very clever poem upon Nothing. 

There are men who get one idea into their heads, and but one, 
and they make the most of it. You can see it and almost feel it in 
their presence. On all occasions it is produced, till it is worn as thin 
as charity. They remind you of a twenty-four pounder discharging 
at a humming-bird. Tou hear a tremendous noise, see a volume of 
smoke, but you look in vain for the effects. The bird is scattered to 
atoms. 

IV. Animated Thought. 

Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 
[From " The Personality and Uses of a Laugh." — Anon.] 

I would be willing to choose my friend by the quality of his laugh, 
and abide the issue. A glad, gushing outflow, a clear, ringing, mel- 
low note of the soul, as surely indicates a genial and genuine nature, 
as the rainbow in the dew-drop heralds the morning sun, or the frail 
flower in the wilderness betrays the zephyr-tossed seed of the par- 
terre. 



94 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



A laugh is one of God's truths. It tolerates no disguises. False- 
hood may train its voice to flow in softest cadences, its lips to wreathe 
into smiles of surpassing sweetness, its face 

" to put on 
That look we trust in ; . . ." 

but its laugh will betray the mockery. Who has not started and 
shuddered at the hollow "he-he-he!" of some velvet- voiced Mephis- 
topheles, whose sinuous fascinations, without this note of warning — 
this premonitory rattle — might have bound the soul with a strong 
spell! 

V. Sublimity, Reverence and Devotion. 

Moderate Force, Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From " God's First Temples."— Bryant.] 

Father, thy hand 
Hath reared these venerable columns : thou 
Did'st weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down 
Upon the naked earth, and forthwith rose 
All these fair ranks of trees. They in thy sun 
Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze, 
And shot toward heaven. The century-living crow, 
Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died 
Among "their branches ; till at last they stood, 
As now they stand, massy, and tall, and dark, 
Fit shrine for humble worshiper to hold. 
Communion with his Maker. 



VI. Introduction to an Oration. 

Moderate Force, Orotund, Expulsive Form,. 
[From Webster's Speech in the Senate, Jan. 26, 18S0, in reply to Hayne.] 

Mr. President : When the mariner has been tossed for many days 
in thick weather, and on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself 
of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun, to take 
his latitude, and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from 
his true course. Let us imitate this prudence, and before we float 
farther, refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at 
least be able to conjecture where we now are. I ask for the reading 
of the resolution. 



ENEKGETIC FORCE. 95 

SECTION XVI. 
ENERGETIC FORCE. 

Energetic force is that degree of intensity heard in 
earnest, excited conversation. It is the force of voice, 
combined with Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive 
Forms, for the expression of Joy, gladness, mirth ; with 
the Orotund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms, for the 
delivery of senatorial, political and judicial speeches, 
orations and sermons of an oratorical character ; with 
the Orotund, Effusive Form, for the utterance of pro- 
found sublimity, grandeur, and adoration. 

Examples: I. Joy and Gladness. 

Energetic Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 
[From " Greeting to Friends after an Absence. 1 ' — Morris.] 

I'm with you once again, my friends ; 

No more my footsteps roam ; 
Where it began my journey ends, 

Amid the scenes of home. 
No other clime has skies so blue, 

Or streams so broad and clear ; 
And where are hearts so warm and true 

As those that meet me here ? 

II. Senatorial Speech. 

Energetic Force, Orotund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 

[From "Webster's Eeply to Hayne."] 

Mr. President, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts — 
she needs none. There she is — behold her, and judge for yourselves. 
There is her history — the world knows it by heart. The past, at 
least, is secure. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and 
Bunker Hill — and there they will remain forever. The bones of her 
sons, fallen in the great struggle for independence, now lie mingled 
with the soil of every State from New England to Georgia — and there 
they will lie forever. And, sir, where American liberty raised its first 
voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still 



96 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. 
If discord and disunion shall wound it — if party strife and blind am- 
bition shall hawk at and tear it — if folly and madness, if uneasiness 
under salutary arid necessary restraints, shall succeed to separate it 
from that Union by which .alone its existence is made sure — it will 
stand in the end by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was 
rocked ; it will stretch forth its arm, with whatever vigor it may still 
retain, over the friends who gather round it ; and it will fall at last, 
if fall it must, amid the proudest monuments of its own glory, and on 
the very spot of its origin ! 

III. Oration. 

Energetic Force, Orotund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 
[From " Washington.'"] 

It matters very little what immediate spot may have been the 
birthplace of such a man as "Washington. No people can claim, no 
country appropriate him. The boon of Providence to the human 
race — his fame is eternity, and his residence creation. Though it was 
the defeat of our arms, and the disgrace of our policy, I almost bless 
the convulsion in which he had his origin. If the heavens thundered, 
and the earth rocked, yet, when the storm had passed, how pure was 
the climate that it cleared ! How bright in the brow of the firma- 
ment was the planet which it revealed to us ! In the production of 
"Washington it does really appear as if nature was endeavoring to im- 
prove upon herself, and that all the virtues of the ancient world were 
but so many studies preparatory to the patriot of the new. 

Individual instances, no doubt, there were — splendid exemplifica- 
tions of some single qualification. Ccesar was merciful, Scipio was 
continent, Hannibal was patient ; but it was reserved for Washington 
to blend them all in one, and, like the lovely masterpiece of the Gre- 
cian artist, to exhibit, in one glow of associated beauty, the pride of 
every model, and the perfection of every master. 

IV. Oratorical Sermon. 

Energetic Force, Orotund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 

[From "Living to God." — Griffin.'] 

My brethren, let us no longer live to ourselves. Let us arise and 
put our hands to the great work in which the nations are now moving. 
Wondrous things are taking place in the four quarters of the globe. 
The world is waking up after a long sleep, and is teeming with 



IMPASSIONED FORCE. 97 

projects and efforts to extend the empire of truth and happiness. 
This is the day of which the prophets sung. Let us not sleep, while 
all others are rousing themselves to action. Let every soul come up 
to the help of the Lord. Let not one be left behind. He that has 
absolutely nothing to give, let him pray. Let no one be idle. This 
is a great day, and the Lord requires every hand in the work. 



SECTION XVII. 
IMPASSIONED FORCE. 

Impassioned force is the degree of intensity heard in 
the expression of violent and impetuous emotion. Com- 
bined with Pure Tone, Effusive and Expulsive Forms, 
Impassioned is the degree of force appropriate for call- 
ing and commanding • with Pure Tone, Explosive 
Form, the expression of ecstatic joy and gladness. With 
the Orotund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms, it is em- 
ployed in the utterance of rousing and exciting appeals / 
with the Aspirate, Pectoral and Guttural, Expulsive and 
Explosive, in the expression of anger, threatening, scorn, 
defiance, revenge, etc. 

Examples : I. Calling. 

Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form, 
[From The Herald's Call, " King John." — Shakspeare.'] 

Rejoice, ye men of Angiers 1 Ring your bells : 
King John, your king and England's, doth approach. 
Open your gates, and give the victors way ! 

II. Commanding. 

Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 
[From " Charge of Light Brigade." — Tennyson.] 

Forward, the Light Brigade, 
Charge for the guns ! 
1 



98 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

III. Ecstatic Joy. 

Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 
[From "The Life Boat."— Anon. - ] 

Hurrah ! the life-boat dashes on, 

Though darkly the reef may frown ; 
The rock is there, the ship is gone 

Full twenty fathoms down. 
But cheered by hope, the seamen cope 

With the billows single-handed : 
They are all in the boat. Hurrah! they're afloat! 

And now they are safely landed 

By the life-boat ! Cheer the life-boat ! 

IY. Rousing and Exciting Appeal. 

Impassioned Force, Orotund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 
[From " Spartacus to the Gladiators." — Kdlogg.~\ 

Ye stand here now like giants, as ye are ! The strength of brass 
is in your toughened sinews ; but to-morrow some Koman Adonis, 
breathing sweet perfume from his curly locks, shall with his lily fin- 
gers pat your red brawn, and bet his sesterces upon your blood. 
Hark ! hear ye yon lion roaring in his den ? 'Tis three days since he 
has tasted flesh ; but to-morrow he shall break his fast upon yours, 
and a dainty meal for him ye will be. If ye are beasts, then stand 
here like fat oxen waiting for the butcher's knife. If ye are men, 
follow me. Strike down yon guard, gain the mountain passes, and 
then do bloody work, as did your sires at old Thermopylae ! Is Sparta 
dead? Is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins, that you do 
crouch and cower like a belabored hound beneath his master's lash ? 
comrades ! warriors ! Thracians ! if we must fight, let us fight for 
ourselves ! If we must slaughter, let us slaughter our oppressors ! 
If we must die r let it be under the clear sky, by the bright waters, in 
noble, honorable battle ! 

V. Anger, Scorn, Defiance. 

Impassioned Force, Aspirate, Pectoral and Guttural Qualities, Expulsive 

and Explosive Forms. 

[From " The Seminole's Defiance."] 

Blaze with your serried columns! I will not bend the knee; 
The shackle ne'er again shall bind the arm which now is free! 



STRESS. 99 

I've mailed it with the thunder when the tempest muttered low, 
And where it falls ye well may dread the lightning of its blow. 
I've scared you in the city ; I've scalped you on the plain ; 
G-o, count your chosen where they fell beneath my leaden rain ! 
I scorn your proffered treaty ; the pale face I defy ; 
Revenge is stamped upon my spear, and " blood" my battle-cry! 

Perfect command of every degree of force enables the 
public speaker to readily adapt his tones to the senti- 
ment he expresses, and to the circumstances by which 
he is surrounded. 

Expressing pathos, his voice easily drops to subdued 
force ; uttering bold and rousing thought, it as readily 
rises to impassioned force ; in the delivery of didactic 
thought, it is pleasingly modulated to moderate force ; 
speaking in a small room, the degree of force is so regu- 
lated as not to be painful to the hearers ; addressing a 
vast assembly in the open air, the voice is perfectly 
audible to the most distant hearer ; speaking under the 
influence of strong excitement, the intensity of his feel- 
ings does not hinder his utterance, nor drive him into 
ranting and vociferation. 

Such are some of the advantages of perfect command 
of Force of Voice. 

Exercises similar to the above not only give vigor and 
pliancy to the vocal organs, but are invaluable aids to 
health, cheerfulness, and mental activity. 

SECTION XVIII. 

STRESS. 

Stress is the application of the force of the voice to 
the different parts of the word or sound. 

The divisions of stress are Radical, Median, Final, 
Compound, Thorough, and Intermittent. 



100 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

SECTION XIX. 
RADICAL STRESS. 

Radical Stress is the application of the force of the 
voice to the first part of the word or sound. "The 
clear and forcible radical stress can take place only after 
an interruption of the voice." 

" It would seem as if there is some momentary occlu- 
sion in the larynx, by which the breath is barred and 
accumulated for the purpose of a full and sudden dis- 
charge. This occlusion is most under command, and the 
explosion is most powerful, on syllables beginning with 
a tonic element, or with an abrupt one preceding a 
tonic, for in this last case an obstruction in the organs 
of articulation is combined with the function of the 
larynx." 

To acquire control of this style of stress practice the 
following elements and words in the Expulsive and Ex- 
plosive Forms, first with Pure Tone, then with Orotund, 
in the Moderate, Energetic and Impassioned degree of 
Force. 

In this exercise be careful to expend the full force of 
the voice upon the first part of the word or sound. 

Radical Stress — First Exercise. 
1. a, as heard in add, fat. 



2. e, 


, « 


end, met. 


3. i, 


u 


ill, fin. 


4. o, 


(C 


odd, not. 


5. u, 


cc 


us, tub. 


6. y, 


u 


nymph, lyric. 


1. a, 


a 


ale, fate. 


8. e, 


a 


eve, mete. 


9. I, 


u 


ice, fine. 



RADICAL STRESS. 101 



Radical Stress— 


-Second Exercise. 


Add, 


end, 


orb, 


all, 


ease, 


isle, 


inch, 


use, 


oil, 


up, 


on, 


aid, 


entire, 


obey, 


end, 


bend, 


think, 


live, 


defy, 


blaze, 


rouse, 


down, 


slave, 


round. 



The radical Stress is heard in various degrees. In 
its milder form it is the stress appropriate for the de- 
livery of narrative, descriptive and didactic thought in 
the style of essays, lectures and sermons ; in a more en- 
ergetic form it is appropriate for the utterance of argu- 
mentative speeches and orations ; and in its most im- 
passioned form for the expression of intense feeling and 
emotion, as anger, scorn, defiance, etc. 

Examples : I. Narrative. 

Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 
[From "The Heart's Charity."— Eliza Cook.'] 
A rich man walked abroad one day, 
And a poor man walked the self-same way, 
When a pale and starving face came by, 
With a pallid lip and a hopeless eye; 
And that starving face presumed to stand 
And ask for bread from the rich man's hand. 
But the rich man sullenly looked askance, 
With a gathering frown and a doubtful glance ; 
"I have nothing," said he, "to give to you, 
Nor any such rogue of a canting crew ;" 
And he fastened his pocket, and on he went, 
With his soul untouched and his conscience content. 

II. Didactic 

Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 
[From " Advice to a Young Lawyer," — Judge Story.] 
Whene'er you speak, remember every cause 
Stands not on eloquence, but stands on laws ; 



102 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Pregnant in matter, in expression brief, 

Let every sentence stand with bold relief; 

On trifling points nor time nor talents waste, 

A sad offense to learning and to taste ; 

Nor deal with pompous phrase, nor e'er suppose 

Poetic flights belong to reasoning prose. 

III. Argumentative Speech. 

Badical Stress, Energetic Force, Orotund, Expulsive Form. 
[From "Barbarity of National Hatreds." — Rufus Ohoate."] 

Mr. President, let me say that, in my judgment, this notion of a 
national enmity of feeling toward Great Britain belongs to a past age 
of our history. My younger countrymen are unconscious of it. They 
disavow it. That generation in whose opinions and feelings the ac- 
tions and the destiny of the next are unfolded, as the tree in the 
germ, do not at all comprehend your meaning, nor your fears, nor 
your regrets. We are born to happier feelings. "We look to England 
as we look to France. We look to them from our new world — not 
unrenowned, yet a new world still — and the blood mounts to our 
cheeks, our eyes swim, our voices are stifled, with emulousness of so 
much glory ; their trophies will not let us sleep ; but there is no 
hatred at all ; no hatred, no barbarian memory of wrongs, for which 
brave men have made the last expiation to the brave. 

IV. Anger, Scorn and Defiance. 

Radical Stress, Impassioned Force, Aspirate, Orotund, Guttural Quality, 

Explosive Form. 

[From " Paradise Lost." — Milton.'] 

Whence and what art thou, execrable shape ! 
That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance 
Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
To yonder gates ? Through them I mean to pass, 
That be assured, without leave asked of thee : 
Eetire ! or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, 
Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of heaven. 

Radical Stress is one of the most important properties 
of utterance. Without it reading and speaking become 
dull and lifeless. 



MEDIAN STRESS. 103 

The argumentative speaker who has not this property 
at command fails to produce conviction in the minds of 
his hearers. 

Dr. Rush says of the Radical Stress : " It is this 
which draws the cutting edge of words across the ear, 
and startles even stupor into attention ; this which les- 
sens the fatigue of listening, and outvoices the stir and 
rustle of an assembly." 

Murdoch and Russell say : " The utter absence of 
radical stress bespeaks timidity and indecision, confu- 
sion of thought, and feebleness of purpose. 

" The speaker who fails in regard to the effect of this 
property of utterance solicits our pity rather than com- 
mands our respect. The right degree of this function 
indicates the manly, self-possessed speaker." 

SECTION XX. 
MEDIAN STRESS. 

Median Stress is the application of the force of the 
voice to the middle of the word or sound. 

It is a gradual increase of force and elevation of pitch 
through the concrete movement to the middle of the 
word, and then as gradual a diminution and lowering to 
the close. Median stress is generally heard in connec- 
tion with the effusive form. 

To acquire control of this style of stress practice the 
following elements and words, beginning each with very 
subdued force and low pitch, which gradually increase 
and elevate to the middle, and then as gradually dimin- 
ish and lower. 

Median Stress — First Exercise. 

1. a, as heard in ale, fate. 

2. a, " arm, far. 



104 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



3. a, as heard in ask, grass. 

4. a, " all, talk. 

5. 6, " old, note. 

6. 65, " moon, food. 

Median Stress — Second Exercise. 



Gray, 

old, 

oh, 

beams, 

full. 



tolls, 

arm, 

more, 

prayer, 

fled. 



day, 

father, 

roll, 

slow, 

pure, 



softly, 

palm, 

round, 

tread, 

snow. 



Median is the appropriate stress for the utterance of 
pathos, solemnity, sublimity, reverence, grandeur and 
devotion. 

It is heard in different degrees, varying with the depth 
and power of the emotion. 

Serious, solemn and tranquil thought require only the 
milder forms of the Median ; while reverence, grandeur, 
sublimity and devotion require the fullest form. 

Examples : I. Tranquillity. 

Median Stress, Subdued Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 

[From "Evening." — Mow.'] 

'Tis twilight now : 
How deep is the tranquillity ! The trees 
Are slumbering through their multitude of boughs, 
Even to the leaflet on the frailest twig ! 
A twilight gloom pervades the distant hills, 
An azure softness mingling with the sky. 

II. Solemnity. 

Median Stress, Subdued Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 
[From "Death." — Mrs. Hernans.~\ 
Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
And stars to set ; but all, 

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, Death ! 



MEDIAN STRESS. 105 

We know when moons shall wane, 

When summer birds from far shall cross the sea, 
When autumn's hue shall tinge the golden grain: 

But who shall teach us when to look for thee ? 



III. Sublimity and Geandeue. 

Median Stress, Moderate and Energetic Force, Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From " Ossian's Address to the Sun."— MacphersonJ] 

thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! 
whence are thy beams, sun ! thy everlasting light ! Thou comest 
forth in thy awful beauty: the stars hide themselves in the sky; the 
moon, cold and pale, sinks in the western wave. But thou thyself 
movest alone : who can be a companion of thy course ? 

The oaks of the mountain fall ; the mountains themselves decay 
with years ; the ocean sinks and grows again ; the moon herself is 
lost in the heavens ; but thou art forever the same, rejoicing in the 
brightness of thy course. 

When the world is dark with tempests, when thunders roll, and 
lightnings fly, thou lookest in thy beauty from the clouds, and laugh- 
est at the storm. 

But to Ossian thou lookest in vain ; for he beholds thy beams no 
more, whether thy yellow hair floats on the eastern clouds, or thou 
tremblest at the gates of the west. But thou art, perhaps, like me, 
for a season : thy years will have an end. Thou wilt sleep in thy 
clouds, careless of the voice of the morning. 



IV. Reveeence and Adoeatton. 

Median Stress, Moderate and Energetic Force, Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From " Morning Hymn in Paradise." — Milton.'] 

These are thy glorious works, Parent of Good, 

Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 

Thus wondrous fair. Thyself how wondrous then 1 

Unspeakable ! who sitt'st above these heavens, 

To us invisible or dimly seen, 

'Midst these thy lowest works. 

Yet these declare thy goodness beyond thought 

And power divine ! 



106 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

The median stress is one of the greatest beauties in 
reading. 

It prevents the drawling and lifeless style so prevalent 
in the reading of the Bible and the Church service, and 
gives a most impressive beauty, power and grandeur to 
the utterance of pathos, sublimity, reverence, devotion 
and adoration. 

Destitute of its ennobling .effect, the reading of many 
passages in prose and poetry sinks into a monotonous 
and tedious utterance. 

It is indispensable to the highest success in Elocution. 
Carried to excess it becomes a fault. The habit of 
mouthing, so prevalent on the stage among stock actors, 
has for one of its principal elements an excessive median 
stress. Like every element of utterance, it must be ju- 
diciously used. 

SECTION XXI. 

FINAL STRESS. 

The final Stress is the application of the force of the 
voice to the last part of the word or sound. 

The force, at first but slight, is gradually increased, 
until it closes in an abrupt and violent sound. In its 
effect on the ear it is not unlike the report of a pistol 
when it hangs fire. 

To acquire control of this style of stress practice the 
elements and words as directed. Repeat each of the 
elements, beginning with a slight sound, which gradually 
increase, and close with an abrupt and forcible sound. 

Final Steess — First Exercise. 

1. e, as heard in me, see. 

2. a, " ale, pale. 

3. a, " air, fair. 

4. a, " father, arm. 



FINAL STRESS. 



107 



5. a, as heard in ask, grass. 

6. I, " ice, fine. 

7. ii, " use, tube. 



Final Stress — Second Exercise. 



Slave, wretch, 

villainy, revenge, 

birth, sorrows, 

extreme, rights, 

determined, proceed, 

barren, rugged, 



coward, great, 

hatred, defiance, 

beasts, slaves, 

bid, push, 

fortune, friends, 

rock, refuge. 



The final Stress is employed in the expression of de- 
termined purpose, earnest resolve, stem rebuke, contempt, 
astonishment, horror, revenge, hate and similar passions. 

It is usually combined with the Expulsive and Explo- 
sive Forms of Voice, and, in the expression of passion, 
with the Aspirate, Pectoral, or Guttural Qualities. 

Examples : I. Earnest Resolve. 

Final Stress, Energetic Force, Orotund, Expulsive Form. 
[From " Supposed Speech of John Adams." — Webster.'] 

Sir, before G-od, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves 
this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all 
that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to 
stake upon it ; and I leave off as I began, that, live or die, survive or 
perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and, by 
the blessing of G-od, it shall be my dying sentiment ; independence 
now, and independence forever. 

II. Determined Purpose. 

Final Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund Aspirate Quality, Expulsive 

and Explosive Forms. 

[From " Speech on Writs of Assistance."— OtisJ] 

Let the consequences be what they may, I am determined to pro- 
ceed. The only principles of public conduct that are worthy of a 



108 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

gentleman or a man are to sacrifice ease, estate, health, happiness, 
and even life itself, at the sacred call ©f his country. 

III. Stern Rebuke. 

Final Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund Pectoral Quality, Expulsive 
and Explosive Forms. 

[From "Speech against American "War."— Chatham.] 

I cannot, my lords, I will not, join in congratulation on misfortune 
and disgrace. This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment. 
It is not a time for adulation ; the smoothness of flattery cannot save 
us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary to instruct 
the throne in the language of truth. We must, if possible, dispel the 
delusion and darkness which envelop it, and display, in its full dan- 
ger and genuine colors, the ruin which is brought to our doors. Can 
ministers still presume to expect support in their infatuation ? Can 
Parliament be so dead to its dignity and duty as to give their support 
to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them ? Measures, my 
lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to scorn and 
contempt ! 

IV. Mockery, Contempt and Scorn. 

Final Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund Pectoral Guttural Quality, 

Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 

[From Queen Constance to the Archduke of Austria. — Shakspeare.] 

Thou slave ! thou wretch ! thou coward ! 
Thou little valiant, great in villainy ! 
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side ! 
Thou Fortune's champion, that dost never fight 
But when her humorous ladyship is by 
To teach thee safety ! 

V. Determined Stubborn "Will. 

Final Stress, Impassioned Force, Pectoral and Guttural Qualities, Expul- 
sive and Explosive Forms. 
[From Shylock's Refusal. — Shakspeare] 

I'll have my bond ; I will not hear thee speak : 
I'll have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 
I'll not be made a soft and dull-eyed fooL 
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield 



COMPOUND STKESS. 109 

To Christian intercessors. Follow not ; 

I'll have no speaking ! I will have my bond. 



Without the full command of the Final Stress, deter- 
mined purpose, earnest resolve, manly protest, degener- 
rates into childish and angry utterance, and the ex- 
pression of scorn, revenge, and contempt sink to the 
ridiculous tones of the shrew. In the delivery of lyric 
and dramatic poetry, in which high-wrought emotion is 
so frequently found, the Final Stress is an indispensable 
element of utterance. 

SECTION XXII. 
COMPOUND STRESS. 
Compound Stress is the application of the force to the 
first and last parts of the word, passing over the inter- 
mediate parts lightly. 

Command of this style of stress can be best acquired 
by practicing words and sentences. 

Compound Stress — Exercise. 
Gone, heaven, married, dead, 

survive, despise, literary, gospel, 

sermons, people, earnest, history, 

canopy, traitor, tribune, convicted. 

The compound is the stress appropriate for the ex- 
pression of surprise, contempt, and mockery, and some- 
times of sarcasm and raillery. 

Examples : I. Extreme Surprise. 

Compound Stress, Energetic Force, Aspirate Pure" Tone, Expulsive Form. 

[From " Hamlet." — Shakspeare.'] 

Ham. A bloody deed ; almost as bad, good mother, 

As kill a king, and marry with his brother. 
Queen. As kill a king ? 



110 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



II. Exteeme Surprise. 

Compound Stress, Impassioned Force, Aspirate Pure Tone, Expulsive 
Form. 

[From Queen Constance, when confounded with the intelligence of the union of 
Lewis and Blanche, and the consequent injury to her son Arthur. — Shakspeare.'] 

Gone to be married ! Gone to swear a peace ! 
False blood to false blood joined 1 Gone to be friends 1 
Shall Lewis have Blanche, and Blanche these provinces? 
It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard; 
Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again : 
It cannot be ; thou dost but say 'tis so. 



III. Contempt and Mockery. 

Compound Stress, Impassioned Force, Aspirate Pectoral Orotund, Explo- 
sive Form. 
[From " Cataline's Defiance." — Groly.'] 

Banished from Rome ! What's banished, but set free 
From daily contact of the things I loathe ? 
" Tried and convicted traitor ! " 

The compound Stress gives intensity and energy to 
the utterance of surprise, contempt and mockery most 
impressive in its effect. " The use of this form of stress 
belongs appropriately to feelings of peculiar force or 
acuteness ; but on this very account it becomes an in- 
dispensable means of natural expression and true effect 
in many passages of reading and speaking. The differ- 
ence between vivid and dull or flat utterance will often 
turn on the exactness with which this expressive func- 
tion of voice is exerted." 



SECTION XXIH. 
THOROUGH STRESS. 



Thorough stress is the application of the force of the 
voice to all parts of the word or sound equally. 



THOROUGH STRESS. Ill 

To acquire control of this element of expression prac- 
tice the elements and words with all the force you can 
command in the Orotund Expulsive. 

Thorough Stress— Fiest Exeecise. 

1. 6, as heard in no, go. 

2. a, " ale, pale. 

3. a, " arm, farm. 

4. I, " ice, fine. 

Thorough Stress — Second Exercise. 



Ale, 


arm, 


home, 


come, 


lend, 


send, 


grave, 


death, 


call, 


fall, 


all, 


lawn, 


seize, 


spirits, 


fallen, 


woe, 


awake, 


arise, 


shout, 


burn. 



The thorough Stress is appropriately employed in the 
expression of rapture, joy, exultation, lofty command, 
indignant emotion, oratorical apostrophe, and virtuous 
indignation. 

Examples : I. Triumph and Exultation. 

Thorough Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund Quality, Expulsive Form. 

[From "Sheridan's Eide."— T. B. Bead.] 

Hurrah ! hurrah for Sheridan ! 

Hurrah I hurrah for horse and man ! 

And when their statues are placed on high, 

Under the dome of the Union sky, 

The American soldiers' Temple of Fame, 

There •with the glorious General's name 

Be it said, in letters both bold and bright : 

"Here is the steed that saved the day 
By carrying Sheridan into the fight, 

From Winchester — twenty miles away I "■ 



112 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

II. Lofty Command. 

Thorough Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund, Expulsive Form. 
[From "Paradise Lost."— Milton.'] 

Princes! potentates! 
Warriors, the flower of heaven ! once yours, now lost, 
If such astonishment as this can seize 
Eternal spirits, 
Awake ! arise ! or be forever fallen ! 

III. Oratorical Apostrophe. 

Thorough Stress,. Impassioned Force, Orotund, Expulsive Form. 

liberty ! sound once delightful to every Roman ear ! sacred 
privilege of Roman citizenship 1 once sacred, now trampled upon! 
But what then — is it come to this ? Shall an inferior magistrate, a 
governor, who holds his power of the Roman people, in a Roman 
province, within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, torture with fire and 
red-hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of the 
cross, a Roman citizen ? Shall neither the cries of innocence expiring 
in agony, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majesty of the 
Roman commonwealth, nor the fear of the justice of his country, re- 
strain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who, in confi- 
dence of his riches, strikes at the root of liberty and sets mankind at 
defiance ? 

IV. Vehement Indignation. 

Thorough Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund, Expulsive and Explosive 

Forms. 

[From " Rebuke of Lord Suffolk.'"— Chatham.] 

These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of 

them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right 

reverend and this most learned bench to vindicate the religion of their 

God, to defend and support the justice of their country. I call upon 

the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn, upon the 

judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this 

pollution. I call upon the honor of your lordships to reverence the 

dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the 

spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national character. 

Thorough Stress is one of the most powerful weapons 
of oratory. Its effect, when judiciously used, is magical. 



INTERMITTENT STRESS. 113 

It rouses the feelings, kindles the emotions, and stirs the 
very soul of an audience. If employed injudiciously and 
too frequently it degenerates into rant and vociferation, 
exciting only disgust and contempt in the mind of every 
cultivated hearer. 

SECTION XXIV. 

INTERMITTENT STRESS. 

The intermittent Stress is a tremulous emission of the 
voice from the organs. 

To acquire control of this style of stress practice the 
elements and words with a short, quick, broken ut- 
terance. 

Intermittent Stress — First Exercise. 
1. e, as heard in me, see. 



2. 


a, 


a 


ale, pale. 


3. 


a, 


ii 


add, sad. 


4. 


% 


it 


talk, all. 


5. 


o, 


ii 


old, bold. 


6. 


6, 


ii 


odd, not. 



old, 


man, 


days, 


down, 


gone, 


blow, 



Intermittent Stress — Second Exercise. 

O ! die, food, go, 

door, your, 

store, lost, 

hold, . grave. 

The intermittent Stress is the natural expression of all 
emotions attended with a weakened condition of the 
bodily organs, such as feebleness from age, exhaustion, 
fatigue, sickness and grief 

It is also appropriate in the expression of extreme ten- 
derness and ecstatic joy. 






114 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Examples : I. Sickness. 

Intermittent Stress, Subdued Force, Oral, Aspirate Quality, Effusive 

Form. 

[From " Death of Little Jim." — Anon.] 

Mother, the angels do so smile, and beckon little Jim. 
I have no pain, dear mother, now, but 0, I am so dry! 
Just moisten poor Jim's lips again, and, mother, don't you cry. 

II. Feebleness. 

Intermittent Stress, Moderate Force, Pectoral Quality, Expulsive Form. 
[From " The Old Man's Bequest." — Thomas Mo$s.~] 

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, 

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, 
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ; 

0, give relief I and Heaven will bless your store ! 

III. Age and Exhaustion. 

Intermittent Stress, Energetic Force, Pectoral and Guttural Quality, Ex- 
pulsive Form. 

[From " Death of Baron Eudiger." — Green.] 

They come around me here, and say 

My days of life are o'er, 
That I shall mount my noble steed 

And lead my band no more ; 
They come, and to my beard they dare 

To tell me now that I, 
Their own liege lord and master born, 

That I — ha ! ha ! — must die I 



The intermittent Stress gives a vivid and touching 
expression to utterance, for the absence of which nothing 
can atone. "Without its appeal to sympathy, and its 
peculiar power over the heart, many of the most beau- 
tiful and touching passages of Shakspeare and Milton 
become dry and cold." 



PITCH. 115 

SECTION XXV. 
PITCH. 

Pitch is the place upon the musical scale on which 
the sound is uttered. Every sound, whether produced 
by the vocal organs, or by other means, is found 
somewhere on this musical scale. Thus we speak of 
the low notes of the organ, the high notes of the fife ; of 
the low tones of the male voice, the high tones of the 
female voice. 

Excellence in reading and speaking requires so perfect 
control of the different divisions of pitch that at pleasure 
the voice can be raised or lowered according to the feel- 
ing or emotion uttered. 

The Author of our being has so attuned the sensibili- 
ties of the soul that certain notes of voice indicate cer- 
tain emotions. 

A low. subdued tone heard from an adjoining room 
suggests devotion ; while a high pitch as naturally sug- 
gests a joyous conversation or angry dispute. 

In singing, the divisions of pitch are absolute. Two 
persons singing the same tune, however widely different 
their natural pitch of voice, use precisely the same key. 
In Elocution the divisions of pitch are relative. Two 
persons may read the same selection on widely different 
keys, yet each be entirely appropriate. 

In singing, the key is determined by musical instru- 
ments, in which there is comparatively little variation. 

In Elocution the key appropriate for each person is 
determined by his own voice. 

Students of Elocution make no greater mistake than 
in attempting to regulate their pitch of voice by that of 
some favorite teacher or speaker. 



116 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Many teachers of Elocution injure the majority of 
their pupils by impressing them with the idea that their 
peculiar pitch is the only true standard. 

Not unfrequently do students indicate where they 
have been educated by their ridiculous efforts to con- 
form a voice naturally of a high pitch to the low key of 
their instructor. 

It cannot be too earnestly impressed upon the minds 
of pupils that each voice is its own index in pitch. 

The divisions of Pitch in Elocution are Very High, 
High, Middle, Low, Very Low. These divisions should 
include a compass of at least two octaves, but have no 
definite position on the musical scale, varying according 
to the natural key of the different voices. 

That key upon which each person naturally strikes in 
ordinary unimpassioned conversation will be his Middle 
Pitch. This will vary three or five notes. From this 
Middle Pitch all other divisions are to be determined. 

The Low Pitch will be three, four, or five notes below 
the Middle. The Yery Low will be two, three, or four 
notes below the Low ; the range in the lower notes 
being much less than in the high notes. The High 
Pitch will be five, six, or eight notes above the Middle ; 
the Very High will be five or eight notes above the 
High. 

The above arrangement of the divisions of pitch is on 
the supposition that the compass of voice embraces from 
two and a half to three octaves. This is perhaps not 
far from the average, though the compass may be greatly 
increased by cultivation. 

It may be well here to remark that a knowledge of 
music is not essential in the practice of the following 
exercises, nor indeed to the highest excellence in elocu- 
tion. It is a significant fact that those who have made 



PITCH. 117 

the highest attainments in reading and speaking have 
been very deficient in musical cultivation. Indeed it 
will be found, by a careful investigation of the subjects, 
that, though reading and singing are not incompatible, 
they are by no means mutual helpers. Singing implies 
the passage of the voice through the discrete movement. 
Reading and speaking require the passage of the voice 
through the concrete movement. Persons who siug a 
great deal, when they attempt to read unconsciously 
glide into these musical intervals. That which in sing- 
ing constitutes one of the greatest beauties, namely, the 
discrete movement, in reading is the chief element of the 
defect known as tone, or singing-reading. 

Singing may cultivate the voice, but it is exceedingly 
questionable if it improves the vocal delivery. 

Repeat the following elements and words several 
times, first in a Middle Pitch, then in a Low Pitch, then 
in a High Pitch, then in a Yery Low, and last in a Very 
High Pitch. 

This exercise may be varied by beginning on a Very 
Low Pitch, and, on each repetition, raising the key two 
or three notes, until all the divisions have been passed 
over. 

Pitch — Fiest Exeecise. 
1. a, as heard in ale, pale. 



2. a, 


a 


add, fat. 


3. a, 


a 


air, pair. 


4. a, 


u 


far, palm. 


5. a, 


tt 


ask, dance 


6. a, 


u 


all, talk. 


V. o, 


u 


old, note. 


8. u, 


a 


use, tube. 



118 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

Pitch — Second Exeecise. 



Old, 


orb, 


fate, 


find, 


arm, 


harm, 


boat, 


coat, 


but, 


prove, 


moon, 


palm, 


obey, 


loud, 


broad, 


road, 


deep, 


dark, 


ocean, 


liberty, 


glorious, 


mirror, 


tempest, 


brand. 




SECTION XXVI. 






MIDDLE 


PITCH. 





The middle pitch is the appropriate key for the de- 
livery of narrative, didactic and descriptive thought in 
the form of scientific and literary lectures, introductions 
to speeches, orations and sermons. 

Examples : I. Didactic Thought. 

Middle Pitch, Radical /Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive 

Form. 

[From " Cheerfulness." — Anon.'] 

There is no one quality that so much attaches man to his fellow- 
man as cheerfulness. Talents may excite more respect, and virtue 
more esteem ; but the respect is apt to be distant and the esteem cold. 
It is far otherwise with cheerfulness. It endears a man to the heart, 
not the intellect or the imagination. There is a kind of reciprocal 
diffusiveness about this quality that recommends its possessor by the 
very effect it produces. There is a mellow radiance in the light it 
sheds on all social intercourse which pervades the soul to a depth 
that the blaze of intellect can never reach. 

II. Descriptive Thought. 

Middle Pitch, Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive 

Form. 

[From "A Scene of Arab Life."' — Anon."] 

All that has been related concerning the passion for tales, which 
distinguishes the Arabs, is literally true. During the night which we 



MIDDLE PITCH. 119 

passed on the shore of the Dead Sea we observed our Bethlehemites 
seated around a large tire, with, their guns laid near them on the 
ground, while their horses, fastened to stakes, formed a kind of circle 
about them. These Arabs, after having taken their coffee, and conversed 
for some time with great earnestness, and with, their usual loquacity, 
observed a strict silence when the sheik began his tale. We could, 
by the light of the fire, distinguish his significant gestures, his black 
beard, his white teeth, and the various plaits and positions which he 
gave to his tunic during the recital. His companions listened to him 
with the most profound attention ; all of them with their bodies bent 
forward, and their laces over the flame, alternately sending forth 
shouts of admiration, and repeating with great emphasis the gestures 
of the historian. The heads of some few of their horses and camels 
were occasionally seen elevated above the group, and shadowing, as 
it were, the picture. "When to these was added a glimpse of the 
scenery about the Dead Sea and the mountains of Judea, the whole 
effect was striking and fanciful in the highest degree. 



ILL jSTarratton. 

Middle Pitch, Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive 

Form. 

[From "Life of Raleigh." — Anon.] 

Raleigh's cheerfulness during his last days was so great, and his 
fearlessness of death so marked, that the Dean of Westminster, who 
attended him, wondering at his deportment, reprehended the lightness 
of his manner. But Raleigh gave God thanks that he had never 
feared death, for it was but an opinion and an imagination ; and as 
for the manner of death, he had rather die so than in a burning fever; 
that some might have made shows outwardly, but he felt the joy 
within. 

IV. Introduction to Judicial Speech. 

Middle Pitch, Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive 

Form. 

["Trial of a Murderer." — Webster.] 

Against the prisoner at the bar, as an individual, I cannot have the 
slightest prejudice. I would not do him the smallest injury or injus- 
tice ; but I do not affect to be indifferent to the discovery and the 
punishment of this deep guilt. I cheerfully share in the opprobrium, 
how much soever it may be, which is cast on those who feel and 



120 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

manifest an anxious concern that all who had a part in planning, or a 
hand in executing, this deed of midnight assassination, may be brought 
to answer for their enormous crime at the bar of public justice. 

SECTION XXVII. 
LOW PITCH. 

LOW pitch is the key appropriate for the delivery of 
serious, solemn, pathetic, grave, devotional, sublime and 
grand thought not of an earnest or impassioned char- 
acter. 

Examples : I. Solemn Didactic. 

Low Pitch, Badical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive Form. 

[From " Keligion the Only Basis of Society." — Channing.~\ 

Few men suspect, perhaps no man comprehends, the extent of the 
support given by religion to every virtue. No man, perhaps, is aware 
how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this fountain ; 
how powerless conscience would become without the belief of a God ; 
how palsied would be human benevolence, were there not the sense 
of a higher benevolence to quicken and sustain it ; how suddenly the 
whole social fabric would quake, and with what a fearful crash it 
would sink into hopeless ruin, were the ideas of a Supreme Being, of 
accountableness, and of a future life, to be utterly erased from every 
mind. 

II. Solemn Descriptive. 

Low Pitch, Median Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 
[From " Isle of Long Ago."] 

There's a magical isle up the river of Time, 

Where the softest of airs are playing ; 
There's a cloudless sky, and a tropical clime, 
And a song as sweet as a vesper chime, 

And the Junes with the roses are straying. 

« 
And the name of that isle is the Long Ago, 

And we bury our treasures there ; 
There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow; 
There are heaps of dust--but we loved them so ! 

There are trinkets and tresses of hair. 



HIGH PITCH. 121 

There are fragments of song that nobody sings, 

And a part of an infant's prayer ; 
There's a lute unswept, and a harp without strings, 
There are broken vows and pieces of rings, 

And the garments she used to wear. 

III. Sublimity. 

Low Pitch, Median Stress, Moderate and Energetic Force, Orotund, Effu- 
sive Form. 

[From In Memoriam : " Abraham Lincoln." — Mrs. E. G. Bugbee.] 

There's a burden of grief on the breezes of spring, 
And a song of regret from the bird on its wing ; 
There's a pall on the sunshine and over the flowers, 
And a shadow of graves on these spirits of ours ; 
For a star hath gone out from the night of our sky, 
On whose brightness we gazed as the war-cloud rolled by; 
So tranquil and steady and clear were its beams, 
That they fell like a vision of peace on our dreams. 



SECTION XXVIII. 
HIGH PITCH. 

High pitch is the key appropriate for the delivery of 
animated, joyous, gay, earnest and impassioned thought. 

Examples: I. Animated. 

High Pitch, Radical Stress, Energetic Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive 
Form. 

[From "Paddle Your Own Canoe." — Mrs. BolionJ] 

Yoyager upon life's sea, 

To yourself be true ; 
And where'er your lot may be, 

Paddle your own canoe. 
Never, though the winds may rave, 

Falter nor look back, 
But upon the darkest wave 

Leave a shining track. 



122 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Nobly dare the wildest storm, 

Stem tlie hardest gale ; 
Brave of heart and strong of arm, 

You will never fail. 
"When the world is cold and dark, 

Keep an end in view, 
And toward the beacon mark 

Paddle your own canoe. 

II. Joy. 

High Pitch, Radical Stress, Energetic Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive , and 
Explosive Forms. . . 

[From " Voice of Spring." — Mrs. Hemans.'] 
I come ! I come ! ye have called me long : 
I come o'er the mountains with light and song. 
Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth, 
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth, 
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass, 
By the green leaves opening as I pass. 

From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain ; 
They are sweeping on to the silvery main ; 
They are flashing down from the mountain brows; 
They are flinging spray o'er the forest-boughs ; 
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves, 
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves. 

III. Impassioned Oratorical. 

High Pitch, Radical Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund, Expulsive and 

Explosive Forms. 

[From Speech in Virginia Convention. — Patrick Henry.] 

Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means 
which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions 
of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country 
as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our ene- 
my can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles 
alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, 
and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, 
sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the 
brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough 
to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no 
retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their 



VERY LOW PITCH. 123 

clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevita- 
ble, and let it come ! I repeat it, sir, let it come ! 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. G-entlemen may cry 
Peace ! peace ! but there is no peace. The war is actually begun I 
The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to 'our ears the 
clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the field ! 
Why stand we here idle ? What is it that gentlemen wish ? What 
would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- 
chased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty G-od! 
I know not what course others may take ; but as for me, give me 
liberty, or give me death ! 

IV. Impassioned Poetry. 

High Pitch, Thorough Stress, Impassioned Force, Orotund, Expulsive 
Form. 
[From "Sheridan's Ride."— T. B. Bead.} 
Under his spurning feet, the road 
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed, 
And the landscape sped away behind, 
Like an ocean flying before the wind; 
And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, 
Swept on, with his wild eye full of fire. 
But lo ! he is nearing his heart's desire ; 
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, 
With Sheridan only five miles away. 

SECTION XXIX. 
VERY LOW PITCH. 
Very low pitch is the key appropriate for the expres- 
sion of deep solemnity when mingled with awe, sublimity, 
grandeur, amazement, horror, despair, melancholy and 
gloom. 

Examples: I. Solemnity aisd Sublimity. 

Very Low Pitch, Median Stress, Energetic Force, Orotund Effusive Form. 
[From " Apostrophe to the Ocean."— Byron] 
Eoll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll ! 

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain! 
Man marks the earth with ruin — his control 
Stops with the shore ; upon the watery plain 



124 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain 
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, 

"When for a moment, like a drop of rain, 
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, 
"Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown. 

II. Solemnity, Sublimity and Awe. 

Very Low Pitch, Median Stress, Energetic Force, Orotund, Aspirate, 
Effusive Form. 

[From " Cato's Soliloquy." — Addison.] 

It must be so ; Plato, thou reasonest well ! 

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 

This longing after immortality ? 

Or whence this secret dread and inward horror 

Of falling into nought ? Why shrinks the soul 

Back on herself, and startles at destruction ? 

'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us : 

'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 

And intimates Eternity to man. 

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! 

Through what variety of untried being, 

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass ! 

The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me ; 

But shadows, clouds and darkness rest upon it. 

III. Awe, Dismay and Despair.* 

Very Low Pitch, Median Stress, Energetic Force, Orotund, Aspirate' 

Pectoral, Effusive Form. 

[From " The Pestilence." — Porteus.] 

At dead of night, 
In sullen silence stalks forth Pestilence : 
Contagion, close behind, taints all her steps 
With poisonous dew : no smiting hand is seen ; 
No sound is heard ; but soon her secret path 
Is marked with desolation : heaps on heaps 
Promiscuous drop. No friend, no refuge near: 
All, all is false and treacherous around, 
All that they touch, or taste, or breathe, is Death. 



VERY HIGH PITCH. 125 

IV. Solemnity and Awe. 

Very Low Pitch, Median St7'ess, Energetic Force, Orotund, Aspirate- 
Pectoral, Effusive Form. 
[From "Marco Bozzaris." — Halleck.] 

Come to the bridal chamber, Death. ! 

Come to the mother when she feels 
For the first time her first-born's breath; 

Come when the blessed seals 
"Which close the pestilence are broke, 
And crowded cities wail its stroke ; 
Come in consumption's ghastly form, 
The earthquake shock, the ocean storm ; 
Come when the heart beats high and warm, 

With banquet-song, and dance, and wine, 
And thou art terrible : the tear, 
The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, 
And all we know, or dream, or fear 

Of agony are thine. 
But to the hero, when his sword 

Has won the battle for the free, 
Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word, 
And in its hollow tones are heard 

The thanks of millions yet to be. 

SECTION XXX. 
VERY HIGH PITCH. 

Very high pitch is the key appropriate for the expres- 
sion of ecstatic joy ', rapturous delight, impassioned shout- 
ing, calling and commanding. 

Examples : I. Ecstatic Joy. 

Very High Pitch, Thorough Stress, Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Ex- 
pulsive Form. 
[From " Song of Valkrieur." — Mrs. Hemam.] 

Lo, the mighty sun looks forth ! 
Arm, thou leader of the north ! 
Lo, the mists of twilight fly — 
We must vanish, thou must die ! 



126 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

By the sword, and by the spear, 
By the hand that knows not fear, 
Sea-king, nobly sbalt thou fall ! 
There is joy in Odin's hall ! 

II. Shouting. 

Very High Pitch, Thorough Stress, Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Ex- 
pulsive Form. 
[From " Prisoner for Debt.'" — Whittier.] 

Go, ring the bells, and fire the guns, 

And fling the starry banner out ; 
Shout " freedom " till your lisping ones 

Give back their cradle-shout ; 
Let boasted eloquence declaim 
Of honor, liberty, and fame ; 
Still let the poet's strain be heard, 
With " glory " for each second word, 
And every thing with breath agree 
To praise "our glorious liberty." 

III. Impassioned Command. 

Very High Pitch, Thorough Stress, Impassioned Force, Pure Tone, Ex- 
pulsive Form. 
[From " Life Boat." — Anon."] 

Quick ! man the life-boat ! See yon bark 

That drives before the blast ! 
There's a rock ahead, the night is dark, 

And the storm comes thick and fast. 
Can human power, in such an hour, 

Avert the doom that's o'er her ? 
Her mainmast's gone, but she still drives on 

To the fatal reef before her. 

The life-boat ! Man the life-boat ! 

The ability to control the pitch of voice is one of the 
greatest accomplishments in Elocution. Without the 
power of readily accommodating the voice to the key 
demanded by the emotion, there can be no such thing as 
natural and impressive reading or speaking. 



MOVEMENT OF VOICE. 127 

More public speakers fail from inability to control 
pitch than from any other cause. Instances are numer- 
ous of public speakers who, after the delivery of a few 
introductory sentences, allow the voice to rise an octave 
above the key demanded by the sentiment, and upon 
this unpleasant tone, without a change of more than one 
or two notes, speak for an hour at a time. 

No one would listen willingly to a tune constructed 
with a change of only two or three notes. As in music, 
so in Elocution, a constant change in pitch is demanded. 
In speaking not only does each separate word and syl- 
lable require a slight change in pitch, but often wide 
transitions are necessary to properly express the ever- 
varying sentiment. 

Upon the different divisions of pitch all the previous 
attributes should be practiced. 

SECTION XXXI. 
MOVEMENT OF VOICE. 

Movement Of voice is the rapidity with which the 
sounds are uttered in continuous discourse. 

The different rates of movement may be indicated by 
the terms Very Rapid, Rapid, Moderate, Slow, Yery 
Slow. 

Appropriate utterance demands control of every degree 
of movement from the slowest to the most rapid. 

To acquire this power practice the following sentences, 
first in a moderate, then in a rapid, then in a slow, then in 
a very rapid, and lastly, in a very slow movement. 

1. Now came still evening on. 

2. Now fades the glimmering landscape from the sight. 

3. O'er all the peaceful world the smile of heaven shall he. 



128 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



4. Wheel the wild dance till the morning break. 

5. Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee mirth and youthful 
jollity. 

6. Now set the teeth and stretch the nostrils wide. 

7. Here it comes sparkling, 
And there it lies darkling ; 
Now smoking and frothing, 
Its tumult and wrath in, 
Till in this rapid race 

On which it is bent, 
It reaches the place 

Of its steep descent. 

section xxxn. 

MODERATE MOVEMENT. 

Moderate movement is appropriate for the delivery 
of narrative, didactic and unimpassioned thought in the 
form of scientific and literary lectures and introductions 
to speeches. 

Examples : I. Simple 1ST aeration. 

Moderate Movement, Middle Pitch, Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure 

Tone, Expulsive Form. 

[From " Destruction of Carthage." — AtionJ] 

The city and republic of Carthage were destroyed by the termina- 
tion of the third Punic war, about one hundred and fifty years before 
Christ. The city was in flames during seventeen days, and the news 
of its destruction caused the greatest joy at Home. The Eoman Sen- 
ate immediately appointed commissioners, not only to raze the walls 
of Carthage, but even to demolish and burn the very materials of 
which they were made, and in a few days that city, which had once 
been the seat of commerce, the model of magnificence, the common 
storehouse of the wealth of nations, and one of the most powerful 
States in the world, left behind no trace of its splendor, of its power, 
or even of its existence. The history of Carthage is one of the many 
proofs that we have of the transient nature of worldly glory, for of 
all her grandeur not a wreck remains. Her own walls, like the calm 
ocean that conceals forever the riches hid in its unsearchable abyss, 
now obscure all her magnificence. 



MODERATE MOVEMENT. 129 

II. Descriptive. 

Moderate Movement, Middle Pitch, Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure 

Tone, Expulsive Form. 

[From "Aspect of Egypt.' 1 — Addison.] 

There cannot be a finer sight than Egypt at two seasons of the 
year ; for if we ascend one of the pyramids in the months of July and 
August we behold, in the swollen waters of the Nile, a vast sea, in 
which numberless towns and viUages appear, with several causeways 
leading from place to place, the whole interspersed with groves and 
fruit-trees, whose tops only are visible — all which forms a delightful 
prospect. This view is bounded by mountains and woods, which ter- 
minate, at the utmost distance the eye can discover, the most beauti- 
ful horizon that can be imagined. In winter, on the contrary, that is 
to say. in the months of January and February, the whole country is 
like one continuous scene of beautiful meadows, whose verdure, en- 
ameled with flowers, charms the eye. The spectator beholds on every 
side flocks and herds dispersed over all the plains, with iufiuite num- 
bers of husbandmen and gardeners. The air is then perfumed by the 
great quantity of blossoms on the orange, lemon, and other trees, and 
is so pure that a wholesome or more agreeable is not to be found in 
the world, so that nature being then dead, as it were, in all other 
climates, seems to be alive only for so delightful an abode. 

III. Introduction to Legae Speech. 

Moderate Movement, Middle Pitch, Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure 

Tone, Expulsive Form. 

[From "Reply to Wickham in Burr's Trial. 11 — Wirt.] 

In proceeding to answer the argument of the gentleman I will treat 
him with candor. If I misrepresent him it will not be intentionally. 
I will not follow the example which he has set me on a very recent 
occasion. I will endeavor to meet the gentleman's propositions in 
their full force, and to answer them fairly. I will not, as I am ad- 
vancing toward them, with my mind's eye measure the height, 
breadth and power of the proposition. If I find it beyond my strength, 
halve it ; if still beyond my strength, quarter it ; if still necessary, 
subdivide it into eighths: and when, by this process, I have reduced 
it to the proper standard, take one of these sections and toss it with 
an air of elephantine strength and superiority. If I find myself capable 
of conducting, by a fair course of reasoning, any one of his propositions 
to an absurd conclusion, I will not begin by stating that absurd conclusion 



130 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

as the proposition itself which I am going to encounter. I will not, in 
commenting on the gentleman's authorities, thank the gentleman with 
sarcastic politeness for introducing them, declare that they conclude di- 
rectly against him, read just so much of the authority as serves the pur- 
pose of that declaration, omitting that which contains the true point of 
the case, which makes against me ; nor, if forced by a direct call to read 
that part also, will I content myself by running over it as rapidly and in- 
articulately as I can, throw down the book with a theatrical air, and ex- 
claim, " Just as I said ! " when I know it is just as I had not said. 

SECTION XXXIII. 
SLOW MOVEMENT. 

Slow movement is appropriate for the expression of 

solemn, serious, grave and devotional thought. 

Examples : I. Solemn and Serious Thought. 

Slow Movement, Low Pitch, Median Stress, Subdued Force, Pure Ton\ 

Effusive Form. 

[From "Mountains of Life." — Clark.'] 

There's a land far away, 'mid the stars, we are told, 
Where they know not the sorrows of time ; 

Where the pure waters wander through valleys of gold, 
And life is a treasure sublime ; 

'Tis the land of our God, 'tis the home of the soul, 

Where the ages of splendor eternally roll ; 

Where the way-weary traveler reaches his goal, 
On the ever-green Mountains of Life. 

II. Grave Didactic. 

Slow Movement, Low Pitch, Radical Stress, Moderate Force, Pure Tone, 
Expulsive Form. 
[From "Promises of Religion to the Young. 1 ' — Alison.'] 
In every part of Scripture it is remarkable with what singular ten- 
derness the season of youth is always mentioned, and what hopes are 
offered to the devotion of the young. It was at that age that God 
appeared unto Moses when he fed his flock in the desert, and called 
him to the command of his own people. It was at that age that he 
visited the infant Samuel, while he ministered in the temple of the 
Lord, " in days when the word of the Lord was precious, and when 
there was no open vision." It was at that age that his Spirit fell 



VERY SLOW MOVEMENT. 131 

upon David, while he was yet the youngest of his father's sons, and 
when among the mountains of Bethlehem he fed his father's sheep. 

It was at that age also that they brought young children unto 
Christ that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those 
that brought them. But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased, 
and said to them, " Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." If these, then, are 
the effects and promises of youth and piety, rejoice, young man, in 
thy youth ! rejoice in those days which are never to return, when 
religion comes to thee in all its charms, and when the God of nature 
reveals himself to thy soul, like the mild radiance of the morning sun 
when he rises amid the blessings of a grateful world. 

III. Reverence and Devotion. 

Slow Movement, Low Pitch, Median Stress, Moderate Force, Orotund, 

Effusive Form. 

[From "The Groves, God's First Temples."— Bryant.] 

G-od ! when thou 
Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire 
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill, 
With all the waters of the firmament, 
The swift, dark whirlwind that uproots the woods 
And drowns the villages ; when, at thy call, 
Uprises the great deep, and throws himself 
Upon the continent, and overwhelms 
Its cities ; who forgets not, at the sight 
Of these tremendous tokens of thy power, 
His pride, and lays his strifes and follies by I 
from these sterner aspects of thy face 
Spare me and miue ; nor let us need the wrath 
Of the mad, unchained elements to teach 
Who rules them. Be it ours to meditate, 
In these calm shades, thy milder majesty, 
And to the beautiful order of thy works 
Learn to conform the order of our lives. 

SECTION XXXIV. 
VERY SLOW MOVEMENT. 

Very Slow movement is appropriate for the expres- 
sion of profound reverence, deep solemnity, adoration, 
amazement, awe and horror. 



132 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



Examples : I. Profound Reverence and Adoration. 

Very Slow Movement, Very Low Pitch, Median Stress, Energetic Force, 

Aspirate Orotund, Effusive Form. 

[From "God." — Derzhavin.~] 

thou Eternal One ! whose presence bright 
All space cloth occupy, all motion guide ; 

Unchanged through Time's all-devastating flight ; 
Thou only GTod. There is no Ood beside. 

Being above all beings. Mighty One, 

Whom none can comprehend, and none explore ; 

"Who fillest existence with thyself alone ; 
Embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er, 
Being whom we call God, and know no more. 



II. Sublimity and Awe. 

Very Slow Movement, Very Low Pitch, Median Stress, Energetic Force, 

Aspirate- Pectoral Orotund, Effusive Form. 

[From " Closing Year." — Prentice."] 

'Tis a time 
For memory and for tears. Within the deep, 
Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim, 
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time, 
Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold 
And solemn finger to the beautiful 
And holy visions that have passed away, 
And left no shadow of their loveliness 
On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts 
The coffin-lid of Hope, and Joy, and Love, 
And, bending mournfully above the pale, 
Sweet forms that slumber there, scatters dead flowers 
O'er what has passed to nothingness. 

III. Amazement, Awe and Horror. 

Very Slow Movement, Very Low Pitch, Median Stress, Energetic Force, 

Aspirate- Pectoral Orotund, Effusive Form. 

[From " Darkness." — Byron.] 

The world was void : 
The populous and the powerful was a lump, 
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless; 



RAPID MOVEMENT. 133 

A lump of death, a chaos of hard clay. 

The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still, 

And nothing stirred within their silent depths. 

Ships, sailorless, lay rotting on the sea, 

And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropped 

They slept on the abyss, without a surge, 

The waves were dead- the tides were in their grave; 

The moon, their mistress, had expired before ; 

The winds were withered in the stagnant air, 

And the clouds perished : Darkness had no need 

Of aid from them — she was the universe. 



SECTION XXXV. 
RAPID MOVEMENT. 

Rapid movement is appropriate for the delivery of 
animated, gay, joyous thought and. impassioned and in- 
dignant emotion. " It gives utterance to all playfitl, 
humorous and mirthful moods. It sometimes, on the 
other hand, gives its characteristic effect to fear ." 

Examples: 1. Animated. 

Rapid Movement, High PUc/l, Radical Stress, Energetic Force, Expulsive 
and Explosive Forms. 

[From " Spirit of Poetry."— Percival.] 

The world is full of poetry — the air 

Is living with its spirit ; and the waves 

Dance to the music of its melodies, 

And sparkle in its brightness. Earth is vailed 

And mantled with its beauty ; and the walls 

That close the universe with crystal in 

Are eloquent with voices that proclaim 

The unseen glories of immensity, 

In harmonies too perfect and too high 

For aught but beings of celestial mold, 

And speak to man, in one eternal hymn, 

Unfading beauty and unyielding power. 



134 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

II. Gay and Lively. 

Rapid Movement, High Pitch, Radical Stress, Energetic Force, Pure 

Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 

[From " Coquette Punished." — Anon.'] 

Ellen was fair, and knew it, too, 
As other village beauties do, 

Whose mirrors never lie j 
Secure of any swain she chose, 
She smiled on half a dozen beaux, 
And, reckless of a lover's woes, 
She cheated these, and taunted those ; 
" Eor how could any one suppose 

A clown could take her eye ? " 

HI. Impassioned and Indignant Emotion. 

Rapid Movement, High Pitch, Radical Stress, Impassioned Force, Oro- 
tund, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. , 

[From "Lochiel and the Seer."— Campbell.] 

Ealse wizard, avaunt I I have marshaled my clan, 
Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one ; 
They are true to the last of their blood and their breath, 
And like reapers descend to the harvest of death. 
Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock; 
Let him dash his proud foam like a wave on the rock ; 
But woe to his kindred, and woe to his cause, 
When Albin her claymore indignantly draws ; 
When her bonneted chieftains to victory crowd, 
Clanranald the dauntless, and Moray the proud, 
All plaided and plumed in their tartan array. 



SECTION XXXVJ. 
VERY RAPID MOVEMENT. 

Very rapid movement is appropriate for the delivery 
of ecstatic joy, lyric description of brilliant and exciting 
scenes. 



VERY RAPID MOVEMENT. 135 

Examples : I. Ecstatic Joy. 

Very Rapid Movement, Very High Pitch, Radical Stress, Impassioned 
Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 

[From "It Snows." — 3£rs. Hale] 

"It snows," cries the schoolboy: " hurrah I " and his shout 

Is ringing through parlor and hall; 
"While swift as the wing of a swallow he's out, 

And his playmates have answered his call. 
It makes the heart leap but to witness their joy ; 

Proud wealth has no pleasure, I trow. 
Like the rapture that throbs in the pulse of the boy 

As he gathers his treasures of snow. 

IL Hurry ant> Commotio^ — Lyric Style. 

Very Rapid Movement, Very High Pitch, Radical Stress, Impassioned 
Force, Pure Tone, Expulsive and Explosive Forms. 

[From " Mazeppa/' — Byron.] 

Away, away, and on we dash ! 
Torrents less rapid and less rash. 
Away, away, my steed and I, 

Upon the pinions of the wind, 

All human dwellings left behind : 
We sped like meteors through the sky, 
When with its crackling sound the night 
Is checkered with the northern light : 
From out the forest prance 
A trampling troop — I see them come ; 
A thousand horse, and none to ride ; 
With flowing tail and flying mane, 
Wide nostrils, never stretched by pain, 
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, 
And feet that iron never shod, 
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod : 
A thousand horse — the wild, the free, 
Like waves that follow o'er the sea, 

Came thickly thundering on. 
They stop, they start, they snuff the air, 
Gallop a moment here and there, 



136 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

Approach, retire, wheel round and round, 
Then plunging back with sudden bound, 
They snort, they foam, neigh, swerve aside, 
And backward to the forest fly, 
By instinct, from a human eye. 

Perfect command of every degree of movement is in- 
dispensable to the appropriate expression of the different 
forms of thought and emotion. 

No defect more certainly kills the power of utterance 
than an improper rate of movement. 

Ministers of the Gospel not unfrequently weary the 
patience of their audience by a slow, monotonous, tedious 
delivery. Lecturers and lawyers often mar the effect of 
a good discourse by a hurried and rapid utterance. 

Schoolboy speaking is characterized by an unvarying 
movement. 

" It is evident from the very nature of ' movement ' 
that it must be an element of immense power in expres- 
sion. The funeral march suggests to the ear its effect 
in music as associated with awe, gloom and grief, and 
the music of the dance reminds us of its power over 
the feelings of gladness and exhilaration. The grave 
psalm and the song of serious sentiment express, in their 
measured regularity, the adaptation of gentle and ' mod- 
erate movement ' to tranquil and sedate feeling. 

" Similar effects in degree characterize the use of the 
voice in recitation and in reading. Appropriate elocu- 
tion accommodates the movement of the voice to every 
mood of thought, from the slowest, prolonged and linger- 
ing utterance of deep contemplation and profound aice 
to the swift and rapid strains of lyric rapture and ec- 
stasy. Every mood of mind has its appropriate ' move- 
ment,' or ' rate,' of utterance, as definitely expressed as 
its 'quality' of voice, its characteristic 'force,' or its 



VERY RAPID MOVEMENT. 137 

peculiar 'pitch,' 'slide,' or 'wave.' Utterance, to be 
natural and effective, must have the genuine expression 
of its appropriate ' movement.' Solemnity cannot exist, 
to the ear, without slowness, nor gayety without brisk- 
ness of utterance, gravity without sedate style, nor ani- 
mation without a lively ' movement.' 

" The power of ' movement,' in the elocution of a skill- 
ful reader or speaker, is indefinite, as we may observe in 
the difference between a schoolboy gabbling through his 
task, in haste to get rid of it, and a great tragedian, 
whose whole soul is rapt in the part of Cato uttering 
the soliloquy on immortality, or Hamlet musing on the 
great themes of duty, life and death. 

" A command over the ' lively ' and 'brisk movements' 
of the voice is not less important than the power of slow 
and solemn utterance. The style of reading which is 
most frequently introduced to enliven the evening circle 
at home requires of the reader the power to ' trip it as 
he goes' in the mood of gay description, light satire, 
vivid dialogue and droll humor. 

" The three principal faults of ' movement,' which are 
exemplified in the common practice of reading, are uni- 
form sloicness, or, perhaps, a drawling style ; habitual 
rapidity, which prevents all deep and impressive effect, 
and, perhaps, causes indistinctness of enunciation ; a 
uniform ''moderate'' 'movement,' which never yields to 
any natural influence of emotion — so as to become ap- 
propriately expressive, and pass from grave to gay, or 
the reverse, by a change in the gait of the voice — but 
utters, automaton-like, all feelings in the same unmean- 
ing and mechanical style, the voice marching on, with 
one uniform measured step, over all varieties of surface 
as regards the tenor of language and the subject." 



138 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

SECTION XXXVII. 
ACCIDENTS. 

The attributes of voice having been sufficiently dis- 
cussed, the attention of the student is now directed to 
those properties of utterance which may be appropriately 
termed accidents. 

Each of the previously discussed elements being es- 
sential to the delivery of any combination of words, 
have been denominated attributes; but the following 
being only employed at intervals in utterance, may or 
may not be exhibited in the delivery of every sentence, 
and hence are called accidents. 

It will be observed that the accidents, except pauses, 
which are simply the absence of all attributes, are com- 
posed of two or more attributes ; while the attributes 
themselves are original elements, and cannot therefore 
be resolved. 

SECTION XXXVIII. 
QUANTITY. 

Quantity is the length of time occupied in the utter- 
ance of words and syllables. It might at first view ap- 
pear that quantity is an attribute, since the utterance of 
any word or syllable occupies some time ; but it must 
not be forgotten that form is the manner in which the 
sound is sent forth "from the organs ; that Effusive form 
is the sound sent forth gently from the organs, and 
therefore implies long quantity ; that Explosive is the 
sound sent forth violently and abruptly, and hence ne- 
cessitates short quantity. Again, Stress is an element 
of quantity. 

Regarded as a separate element, it will be sufficient 
to discuss quantity under the divisions of long and short. 



LONG QUANTITY. 



189 



SECTION XXXIX. 
LONG QUANTITY. 

Long quantity is an indefinite prolongation in the ut- 
terance of syllables and words. 

To cultivate long quantity practice the following 
words in the Effusive and Expulsive Forms, in Pure 
Tone and Orotund, with different degrees of Force, 
Stress and Pitch. 

Long Quantity — Exercise. 



All, 


arm, 


ooze, 


awe, 


fool, 


morn, 


form, 


poor, 


always, 


moon, 


scorn, 


star, 


who, 


roll, 


wall, 


hold, 


noon, 


own, 


home, 


blow, 


roar, 


ocean, 


plume, 


praise 



Long quantity is employed in the expression of pathos, 
solemnity, sublimity, grandeur, reverence, adoration, 
shouting, calling, commanding, and various other emo- 
tions and passions. The degree of prolongation will 
depend on the degree of emotion, the size of the au- 
dience, and other circumstances. Two or three illustra- 
tions will suffice, as quantity has been already illustrated 
under the attributes. 



Examples : I. Pathos. 

Moderately Long Quantity, Slow Movement, Low Pitch, Median Stress, 

Subdued Force, Pure Tone, Effusive Form. 

[From " Missing."— Anon.] 

Far away, through all the autumn, 

In a lonely, lonely glade, 
In a dreary desolation 

That the battle- storm has made, 



140 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

"With the rust upon his musket, 
In the eve and in the morn, 

In the rank gloom of the fern leaves, 
Lies her noble, brave first-born. 



II. Sublimity and Grandeur. 

Very Long Quantity, Slow Movement, Low Pitch, Median Stress, Ener- 

getic Force, Orotund, Effusive Form. 

[From " Bells."— Poe.] 

Hear the tolling of the bells, iron bells ! 

What a world of solemn thought their monody compels ! 

In the silence of the night, how we shiver with affright 

At the melancholy menace of their tone ! 
For every sound that floats from the rust within their throats 

Is a groan. 
And the people — ah, the people ; they that dwell up in the steeple 

All alone, 
And who tolling, tolling, tolling, in that muffled monotone, 
Feel a glory in so rolling on the human heart a stone — 
They are neither man nor woman, they are neither brute nor human, 

They are ghouls : * 
And their king it is who tolls; and he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls 
A paean from the bells ! and his merry bosom swells 
"With the paean of the bells ! and he dances and he yells ; 
Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, 

To the paean of the bells, of the beUs: 
Keeping time, time, time, in a sort of Runic rhyme, 
To the tolling of the bells, 

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells — 
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. 

III. Shouting and Calling. 

Very Long Quantity, Stow Movement, High Pitch, Thorough Stress, Im- 
passioned Force, Orotund, Effusive Form. 
[From Satan's Call to his Legions. — Milton] 

Princes ! Potentates ! 
Warriors ! The flower of heaven I once yours, now lost, 
If such astonishment as this can seize eternal spirits, 
Awake, arise, or be forever fallen ! 



SHORT QUANTITY. 141 

SECTION XL. 
SHORT QUANTITY. 

Short quantity is the instantaneous utterance of syl- 
lables and words. 

To obtain control of this element of delivery practice 
the following words in the Explosive Form, with Pure 
Tone and Orotund, and various degrees of Force, Stress 
and Pitch. 

Short Quantity — Exercise. 



Back, 


beck, 


neck, 


duck, 


hack, 


pick, 


sick, 


tuck, 


rap, 


dip, 


cup, 


sup, 


bat, 


pit, 


lip, 


socket, 


attack, 


mutter, 


tatter, 


batter. 



Short quantity is employed in the expression of joy, 
Iness, excited command, anger, scorn, contempt, re- 
venge, hate, and other malignant passions. 

Examples : I. Anger and Threatening. 

Short Quantity, Rapid Movement, High Pitch, Radical and Final Stress, 
Impassioned Force, Aspirate- Pectoral Orotund, Explosive Form. 
[From Death to Satan. — Milton.'] 
Back to thy punishment, 
False fugitive ! and to thy speed add wings ; 
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 
Thy lingering, or, with one stroke of this dart, 
Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before. 

II. Excited Command. 

Short Quantity, Rapid Movement, High Pitch, Final Stress, Impassioned 

Force, Pure Tone, Explosive Form. 

[From "Life-Boat."— Anon.] 

Quick ! man the life-boat ! See yon bark, 

That drives before the blast ! 
There's a rock ahead, the fog is dark, 

And the storm comes thick and fast. 



142 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Can human power, in such an hour, 

Avert the doom that's o'er her ? 
Her mainmast's gone, but she still drives on 

To the fatal reef before her. 

The life-boat ! Man the life-boat ! 

" The power and beauty of vocal i expression ' are 
necessarily dependent, to a great extent, on the com- 
mand which a reader or speaker possesses over the ele- 
ment of ' quantity.' Poetry and eloquence derive their 
audible character from this source more than from any 
other. The music of verse is sacrificed unless the nicest 
regard be paid to ' quantity,' as the basis of rhythm and 
of meter, and, with the exception of the most exquisite 
strains of well-executed music, the ear receives no pleas- 
ure comparable to that arising from poetic feeling, em- 
bodied in the genuine melody of the heart, as it gushes 
from the expressive voice which has the power of 

" ' Untwisting all the chains that tie 
The hidden soul of harmony.' 

"Milton, in his Paradise Lost, affords innumerable 
examples of the majestic grandeur of long ' quantities ' 
in epic verse, and without the just observance of these, 
the reading of the noblest passages in that poem becomes 
flat and dry. The same is true, still more emphatically, 
of the magnificent language of the poetic passages of 
Scripture, in those strains of triumph and of adoration 
which abound in the Book of Psalms and in the 
prophets. 

" The necessity, on the other hand, of obeying the law 
of 'immutable quantity,' even in the grandest and most 
emphatic expression, is an imperative rule of elocution. 
A false, bombastic swell of voice never sounds so ridicu- 
lous as when the injudicious and unskillful reader or 



SHORT QUANTITY. 143 

speaker attempts to interfere with the conditions of 
speech, and to prolong, under a false excitement of ut- 
terance,-those sounds which nature has irrevocably de- 
termined short. We have this fault exemplified in the 
compound of bawling, drawling and redoubled ' wave ' 
which some reciters contrive to crowd into the small 
space of the syllable vie in the conclusion of Moloch's 
war-speech, 

" ' Which if not victory is yet revenge.' 

" The fierce intensity of emotion, in the true utterance 
of this syllable, brings it on the ear with an instantaneous 
ictus and tingling effect, resembling that of the lash of 
a whip applied to the organ. A similar case occurs in 
Shylock's fiendish half-shriek on the word hip in his ex- 
clamation referring to Antonio : 

" ' If I do catch him once upon the hip 

I ■will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him ! ' 

" The sprawling, expanded utterance, which the style 
of rant preposterously endeavors to indulge on this 
word, causes the voice, as it were, to fall in pieces in the 
attempt, and to betray the falsity of the style which it 
affects. 

" But it is in the chaste yet generous effect of the ju- 
dicious prolongation and indulgence of ' mutable quanti- 
ties ' that the skill of the elocutionist, and the power and 
truth of expression, are peculiarly felt. It is in these 
that the watchful analyst can trace at once the full soul 
and the swelling heart, which would impel the speaker 
to prolong indefinitely the tones of passion, to give ' am- 
ple scope ' and verge enough to overflowing feeling, but 
no less surely the manly force of judgment, and the dis- 
ciplined good taste, which forbid any display of mere 
sound in the utterance of earnest emotion." 



144 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

SECTION XLI. 
INFLECTIONS. 

Inflections are changes in pitch through the concrete 
movement either upward or downward. These vary in 
degree according to the sentiment uttered. 

The component elements of inflections are pitch and 
movement. 

These will be discussed under the heads of rising 
and falling. 

SECTION XLII. 
RISING INFLECTION. 

The rising inflection is an upward movement of the 
voice through the concrete change of pitch. This in- 
flection may be made in various degrees, passing through 
different notes of the musical scale. 

If a person, in the utterance of a sentence, is interrupted, 
there will be heard a slight rising slide running through 
the interval of the second of the musical scale, and known 
as a Rising Inflection of the Second, indicating incom- 
pleteness. A slight degree of surprise expressed in the 
utterance of the exclamation Ah! exhibits a Rising In- 
flection of the Third; a stronger expression of the same 
feeling will exhibit a Rising Inflection of the Fifth ; and a 
very strong utterance of the emotion will illustrate a 
Rising Inflection of the Octave. These inflections do 
not have the exactness of the musical scale. 

To cultivate the Rising Inflection practice the follow- 
ing sentences in all the different degrees described above. 

Rising Inflection — Exercise. 

1. Is there no retreat ? 

2, Did you say it was I ? 



RISING INFLECTIONS. 145 

3. Did yon, sir, throw up a black crow ? 

4. Heard ye those loud contending waves ? 

5. Dare you insult me? 

6. Will you pleasure me ? 

7. Shall I know your answer ? 

The Rising Inflection of the Second is used chiefly to 
suspend the sense in unimpassioned discourse. 

Examples. 

1. In the ancient republics of Greece and Rome, — 

2. There are men who get one idea, — 

3. "We cannot honor our country, — 

4. There is no one quality, — 

The Rising Inflections of the Third and Fifth are 
used, 

First, To ask a definite question, or one that can be 
answered by yes or no. 

Second, To express different degrees of surprise, aston- 
ishment, or any ardent feeling in asking a question. 

Third, To express the lively, joyous, playful emotions. 

Fourth, To express the first member of words and 
phrases in pairs. 

Fifth, To petition, beg, fawn, and flatter. 

The above are by no means all the cases in which the 
rising inflections of the third and fifth are employed. 

The degree of inflection can only be determined by 
the sentiment and emotion. 

Examples : I. Definite Question. 
Rising Inflection of Third, and Fifth. 

1. Is not forgiveness honorable to any man ? 

2. Is this the part of wise men ? 

10 



146 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

3. Should I not have devoted myself entirely to the service of my 
country ? 

4. Can you think me capable of so vile a deed ? 

5. Are you aware of the discreditable reports in circulation about 
you? 

6. What ! looked he frowningly ? 

II. Astonishment, Surprise, Irony. 

Rising Inflection, Third and Fifth. 

1. Must I budge ? 

2. Must I crouch under your testy humor ? 

3. Must I observe you ? 

4. I an itching palm ? 

5. Cry aloud, for he is a god. 

6. No doubt ye are the people, and wisdom will die with you. 

HI. Joyous, Lively Emotions. 

Rising Inflection, Third and Fifth. 

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house 

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, 

And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap, 

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap, 

"When out on the lawn there rose such a clatter — 

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. 

IV. First Member of Pairs. 

Rising Inflection, Third and Fifth. 

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities r nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us 
from the love of Grod, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

V. Fawning, Flattering, Begging. 

Rising Inflection, Third and Fifth. 

1. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me. 

2. I pray thee remember I have done thee worthy service; told 



RISING INFLECTIONS. 147 

thee no lies, made no mistakings, served without; grudge or grum- 
blings. 

3. Alas ! what need you be so boisterous rough ; 
I will not struggle, I will stand stone still. 
For Heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound ! 
Nay, hear me, Hubert ! drive these men away 
And I will sit as quiet as a lamb ; 
I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word. 
Nor look upon the irons angrily. 

The Rising Inflection of the Octave is employed to 
express intense surprise, wonder and astonishment. 

Examples — Wonder, Surprise, Astonishment. 

Rising Inflection of Octave. 

1. . . . Seems, madam? 

Nay, it is ; I know not seems. 

2. Saw who ? 

My lord, the king, your father. 
The king ? My father ? 

3. Ecstasy. 

4. Hath a dog money ? 

SECTION XLIII. 
FALLING INFLECTION. 

The falling inflection is a downward movement of the 
voice through the concrete change of pitch. 

The falling, like the rising inflection, admits of various 
degrees. 

If a person in reply to a question utters the word no, 
expressing a mild dissent, the voice will pass from the 
middle pitch downward, exhibiting a falling inflection 
of a second or third ; when uttered so as to express 
stronger dissent it will commence on a higher pitch, and 
end in a downward slide of a fifth ; and when uttered in 



148 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

a very strong or passionate dissent, the downward slide 
will run through a whole octave. 

To acquire control of the falling inflection practice 
each of the following sentences in all the above described 
degrees. 

Exeecises. 

1. By virtue we secure happiness. 

2. All high truth is the union of two contradictories. 

3. Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. 

4. The mind, that does not converse with itself, is an 
idle wanderer. 

5. Lowliness is the base of every virtue. 

6. Trust men and they will be true to you. 

7. I tell you, sir, I will not do it. 

8. Go preach to the coward. 

The Falling Inflection is used, 

First, To express completion of thought. 

Second, To express in different degrees positiveness, 
firmness, confidence, authority, declaration, determina- 
tion, command, defiance, indignation, etc. 

Third, To answer questions. 

Fourth, To ask indefinite questions, or those beginning 
with relative pronouns or adverbs, and not admitting of 
an answer by yes or no. 

Fifth, To give emphasis to words which otherwise 
would have the rising inflection. 

Examples : I. Completion of Thought. 

Falling Inflection, Second and Third. 

1. A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heavi- 
ness of his mother. 

2. I come not here to talk. 



FALLING INFLECTION. 149 

3. It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. 

4. It is my living sentiment. 

5. Shakspeare was the greatest tragic writer. 

6. Charity sufiereth long, and is kind. 

II. Positiveness, Confidence, Determination, etc. 

Fulling Inflection, Third, Fifth, and Octave. 

1 . The war must go on. 

2. On such occasions I will place myself on the extreme bound- 
ary of my right, and bid defiance to the arm that would push me 
from it. 

3. We shah not fail 

4. I am commissioned of heaven to perform this work. 

5. It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of G-od, it shall be 
my dying sentiment, independence now and independence forever. 

6. I cannot, my lords ; I will not join in misfortune and disgrace. 

7. Forward the Light Brigade. 

8. Thy threats, thy mercies, I defy ! 
And give thee in thy teeth the lie ! 

IIL Answer to Questions. 

Falling Inflection, Third, Fifth, and Octave. 

1. "What would content you? Talent? No. Enterprise? No. 
Courage ? No. Virtue ? No. The men whom you would select 
should be, not one, but all of these. 

2. Are they Hebrews ? So am I. Are they Israelites ? So am I. 
Are they the seed of Abraham ? So am I. Are they ministers of 
Christ? I am more. 

3. Can honor set a leg ? No. Or an arm ? No. Or take away 
the grief of a wound ? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then ? 
No. What is honor ? A word. What is that word honor ? All. 
Who hath it ? He that died on Wednesday. Doth he feel it ? No. 
Doth he hear it? No. Is it insensible, then? Yes, to the dead. 



150 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

But will it not live with the living? No. "Why? Detraction will 
not suffer it. 

4. With whom may Napoleon be compared? With Diogenes in 
acuteness of intellect, with Caesar in ambition, and with Alexander in 
arms. 

Was it ambition that induced Regulus to return to Carthage ? No ; 
but love of country, and respect for truth. 

Wherein did Chatham surpass Burke ? Not in argument, nor in 
the sublimity of his thoughts, nor yet in the richness and splendor of 
his diction, but in personal weight of character, and in the exterior 
graces and expressive power of the orator. 

IV. Indefinite Questions. 

Falling Inflection, Third, Fifth, and Octave. 

1. Why reason ye these things in your hearts ? 

2. Who. is here so base that he would be a bondman ? 

3. Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies ? 

4. What shall we do to inherit eternal life ? 

5. From whence hath this man these things ? 

6. Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? 

7. To what shall I liken the men of this generation 

8. Can no support be offered ? Can no encouragement be given ? 

9. But where is the iron-bound prisoner ? Where ? 

Ah I what is that flame which now bursts on his eye ? 

10. Who covered the earth with such a pleasing variety of fruits 
and flowers ? Who gave them their delightful fragrance, and painted 
them with such exquisite colors ? Who causeth the same water to 
whiten in the lily and blush in the rose ? Do not these things prove 
the existence of a power infinitely superior to that of any finite being ? 

Y. Emphatic Woeds. 

Falling Inflection, Fifth and Octave. 

1. If we fail it can be no worse with us. 

2. I'd rather be a dog, and bay the moon, than such a Roman. 



CIRCUMFLEX. 151 

3. I dare accusation. I defy the honorable gentleman. 

4. All this ? Ay, and more. 

No element of utterance is more important in giving 
significance to speech than inflection. 

It constitutes that part of modulation which renders 
expression addressed to the understanding intelligible. 

In the reading and recitation of verse it is the proper 
management of the inflections that prevent monotony on 
the one hand, and chanting on the other. 

"So important is a just mixture of inflections that the 
moment they are neglected our pronunciation becomes 
forceless and monotonous. If the sense of a sentence re- 
quire the voice to adopt the rising inflection on any par- 
ticular word, either in the middle or at the end of the 
phrase, variety and harmony demand the falling inflec- 
tion on one of the preceding words; and, on the other 
hand, if emphasis, harmony, or a completion of sense, 
require the falling inflection on any word, the word im- 
mediately preceding almost always demands the rising 
inflection, so that these inflections of voice are in an 
order nearly alternate." 

SECTION XLIV. 
CIRCUMFLEX. 

The circumflex is a combination of the two inflections 
on the same syllable or word. Sometimes the upward 
movement comes first, and sometimes the downward. 
Often more than two inflections are combined on the 
same word, so that a great variety of waves are possible 
in speech. Dr. Rush has actually enumerated one hun- 
dred and eighty varieties. An extended discussion of 
these would be of little practical advantage to the gen- 
eral student. 



152 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

A few illustrations must suffice. 

The Circumflex is employed chiefly in the expression 
of irony, sarcasm, sneer, drollery, etc. 

Examples. 

1. The atrocious crime of being a young man, which, with so much 
spirit and decency the gentleman has charged upon me, I shall neither 
attempt to palliate nor deny. 

2. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew ! 
Now, infidel, I have thee on the hip. 

A Daniel, still I say ; a second Daniel ! 

I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. 

. 3. Hath a dog money ? Is it possible 
A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? 

4. Yet this is Rome, and we are Romans. 

5. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious ; 
And Brutus is an honorable man. 

6. Has the gentleman done ? Has he completely done ? 

The Circumflex is one of the most impressive elements 
of expression in the whole range of vocal effect. 

Mockery, raillery, irony, and sarcasm cannot be given 
without it. 

An intelligent and discriminating use of this element 
is indispensable, however, to its right effect. 

Adopted too frequently and expressed too pointedly, 
it offends the ear. 



SECTION XLV. 
CADENCE. 

Cadence is that dropping of the voice at the close of 
the sentence, which indicates that the sense is complete. 
This is done by dropping the voice on the last three 



CADENCE. 153 

syllables, either in the discrete or concrete movement, at 
least three full tones lower than that which prevailed in 
the body of the sentence. 

The note to which the cadence falls, and the space 
through which it descends, will depend on the emotion 
of the sentiment. 

In strong emotion the cadence is both abrupt and low, 
in gentle emotion it is gradual and moderate, while on 
unemotional thought it is slight. 

No element of utterance more demands the watchful 
attention of the living teacher, or is more difficult for 
the pupil to acquire from books, than that of cadence. 

Practice the following sentences with different degrees 
of cadence. 

Examples. 

1. I love it, I love it, and cannot tear 

My soul from my mother's old arm-chair ! 

2. "When the evening comes with its beautiful smile, 
And our eyes are closing to slumber awhile, ■ 
May that " G-reenwood " of soul be in sight ! 

3. The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we re* 

fuse to be divorced. 

4. We'll all meet again in the morning. 

5. In teaching me the way to live, 
It taught me how to die. 

6. He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, 
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffmed, and unknown. 

7. Be armed with courage against thyself, against thy passions, and 

against flatterers. 

8. The true American patriot is ever a worshiper. 

Perfect command of Cadence is a rare accomplish- 
ment. It is one of the distinguishing marks of excel- 
lence in the cultivated reader. 



154 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Pauses. 

Pauses are supensions of the voice between words and 
sentences. No definite rules can be given to guide the 
reader or speaker in the use of pauses. Their length 
and frequency can be determined only by the sen- 
timent. 

Unim passioned didactic thought demands but moder- 
ate pauses; gay, lively and joyous thought very short 
pauses ; solemnity, sublimity, grandeur and reverence, 
long pauses ; while impassioned thought may demand 
long or short pauses. 

A pause should always be made before and after an 
emphatic word. 

It will be hardly necessary to say that the pauses re- 
ferred to are not indicated by the marks of punctuation. 
These may or may not harmonize with the rhetorical 
pauses. 



Examples : I. Didactic Thought. 

Moderate Pauses. 
[From " Expression." — Winthrop.] 

A woman's voice can tell a long history of sorrow in a single word. 
This wonderful instrument, our voice, alters its timbre with every 
note it yields, as the face changes with every look, until at last the 
dominant emotion is master, and gives quality to tone and character 
to expression. . . . 

Every look, tone, gesture of a man is a symbol of his complete na- 
ture. If we apply the microscope severely enough we can discern 
the fine organism by which the soul sends itself out in every act of 
the being. And the more perfectly developed the creature the more 
significant, and yet the more mysterious, is every habit, and every 
motion mightier than habit, of body and soul. 



PAUSES. 155 

II. Solemnity. 

Long Pauses. 
[From "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty/ 1 — Shelley] 

The day becomes more solemn and serene 

When noon is past ; there is a harmony 

In autumn, and a luster in its sky, 
Which through the summer is not heard nor seen, 
As if it could not be, as if it had not been ! 

Thus let thy power, which like the truth 

Of nature on my passive youth 
Descended, to my onward life supply 

Its calm, to one who worships thee, 

And every form containing thee, 

Whom, Spirit, fair, thy spells did bind 
To fear himself, and love all human kind. 



III. Solemnity and Sublimity. 

Very Long Pauses. 
[From " Hamlet's Soliloquy."— Shakspeare.] 

To be, or not to be, that is the question : 

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer 

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ; 

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, 

And, by opposing, end them ? To die ; to sleep ; 

No more : and, by a sleep, to say we end 

The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks 

That flesh is heir to — 'tis a consummation 

Devoutly to be wished. To die ; to sleep ; 

To sleep ! perchance to dream ; ay, there's the rub ; 

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, 

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, 

Must give us pause : There's the respect, 

That makes calamity of so long life : 

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time. 

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, 

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, 

The insolence of office, and the spurns 

That patient merit of the unworthy takes, 

When he himself might his quietus make 



156 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



With a bare bodkin ? "Who would fardels bear, 
To grunt and sweat under a weary life ; 
But that the dread of something after death, 
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn 
No traveler returns — puzzles the will ; 
And makes us rather bear those ills we have, 
Than fly to others that we know not of? 
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; 
And thus the native hue of resolution 
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought ; 
And enterprises of great pith and moment, 
"With this regard, their currents turn awry, 
And lose the name of action. 

IV. Animated. 

Short Puuses. 
[From "1/ Allegro." — Milton.'] 

Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures, 
"Whilst the landscape round it measures ; 
Eusset lawns, and fallows gray, 
Where the nibbling flocks do stray ; 
Mountains on whose barren breast 
The laboring clouds do often rest : 
Meadows trim with daisies pied : 
Shallow brooks, and rivers wide : 
Towers and battlements it sees 
Bosom'd high in tufted trees, 
Where perhaps some beauty lies, 
The Cynosure of neighboring eyes. 



V. Lively, Animated Description. 

Very Short Pauses. 
[From " How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix." — Browning.] 

I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he : 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; 

" G-od-speed ! " cried the watch as the gate-bolts undrew ; 

" Speed ! " echoed the wall to us galloping through; 

Behind shut the postern, the light sank to rest, 

And into the midnight we galloped abreast. 



PAUSES. 157 

The careful observance of the "rhetorical" pause is 
one of the chief means of distinctness in the expression 
of thought. In narration and description, and in plain 
didactic style, it is equally important that the successive 
sounds of the voice should be relieved from each other 
in portions best adapted to present the component parts 
of the whole in a clear, distinct, impressive manner, ac- 
cording to their comparative length and importance. 
The thought or sentiment which is thus communicated 
falls on the ear with a definite and satisfactory succes- 
sion of sounds, which the mind easily receives and ap- 
preciates. The parts being thus exactly given, each 
takes its own due weight, and at the same time enhances 
the effect of the whole. The result is that the com- 
munication is fully understood and makes its just 
impression. 

Young readers in particular are often deficient in this 
most striking and impressive -of all the effects of appro- 
priate reading and recitation. It becomes, therefore, a 
matter of great moment in practice to cultivate the 
habit of watching the effect of full and long pauses in- 
troduced at appropriate places. Without these the most 
solemn passages of Scripture, and the poetry of Milton 
and of Young, produce no effect, comparatively, on the 
mind ; while reading, aided by their "expressive silence," 
seems to be inspired with an unlimited power over the 
sympathies of the soul. 

SECTION XLVH. 

EMPHASIS. 

Emphasis is a peculiar utterance given to words and 

phrases, by which they are rendered specially significant. 

This may be given by an increase of Force or Stress, 

by a change in Quality, Form, Pitch, or Movement, or 



158 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

by a change in the combination of two or more of these 
attributes. 

Variety and power of emphasis require control of all 
the previously discussed elements of utterance. The 
kind and degree of emphasis which is to be given can 
only be determined by the sentiment, and the occasion 
or circumstances of the delivery. "Where the whole 
passage is of an earnest or impassioned character the 
emphatic words require greater prominence. 

The highly- wrought emphasis of impassioned oratory 
would be wholly out of place in a parlor reading of the 
same speech, and in large audiences a much stronger 
emphasis is in place than in small ones. 

" Emphasis is in speech what coloring is in painting. 
It admits of all possible degrees, and must, to indicate a 
particular degree of distinction, be more or less intense 
according to the ground word or current melody of the 
discourse." 

An attentive analysis of Emphasis will discover the 
fact that in the utterance of any emphatic word or 
phrase no one mode of emphasis alone prevails, but that 
a greater or less combination of modes always exists. 
In Emphasis of Force, though Force may largely pre- 
dominate as an element of Emphasis, still it will gen- 
erally be combined with Stress and Pitch, and Emphasis 
of Pitch will be combined with Force and Stress. 

The same will be equally true of all other modes. 
The following illustrations indicate the predominant 
mode of emphasis in each. 

SECTION XL VII] . 
EMPHASIS OF FORCE. 

Emphasis Of force is the utterance of certain words or 
phrases with an increase or decrease of the prevailing 



EMPHASIS OF STRESS. 159 

force. This style of emphasis is usually employed in 
unimpassioned discourse to direct special attention to 
certain words and phrases. 

Examples. 

2 . The repose of the soul is exercise, not rest. 

2. Study to show thyself a man. 

3. I have been accused of ambition in presenting this measure. 

4. I come not here to talk. 

5. Ignorance is the mother of error. 

6. Learning is wealth to the poor, and an ornament to the rich. 

SECTION XLIX. 
EMPHASIS OF STRESS. 

Emphasis Of Stress is either the prevailing stress of 
the utterance intensified, or an entire change of Stress 
on certain words and phrases. " This is the most ob- 
vious and easy way of emphasizing, and, therefore, the 
most common, even where it is altogether inappropriate. 
Hence it is necessary to guard against the too frequent 
use of it." When judiciously employed, this form of 
emphasis is very significant. 

Examples — Radical Stress. 

1 . Back to thy punishment, false fugitive ! 

2. Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts ! 
Dash him to pieces I 

3. " Tried and convicted traitor ! " Who says this ? 

4. Banished from Rome ! what's banished but set free 
From daily contact of the things I loathe ? 

Median Stress. 

1. 'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man. 
Eternity ! thou pleasing, dreadful thought ! 



160 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

2. What a piece of work is man ! 

How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! 

Inform and moving how express and admirable ! 

In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! 

3. change ! wondrous change ! 
Burst are the prison bars. 



Final Stress. 

1. Te gods, it doth amaze me ! 

A man of such a feeble temper should 
So get the start of the majestic world, 
And bear the palm alone. 

2. Thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward! 



3. Let the consequences be what they will 
I am determined to proceed. 



Compound Stress. 

1 . Arm ! arm ! ye heavens, against these perjured kings ! 

2. A widow cries ! be husband to me, heavens ! 

3. Ecstasy! My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time. 

Thorough Stress. 

1. Revenge is stamped upon my spear, 

And blood's my battle cry. 

2. I ask, Why not " traitor " unqualified by an epithet ? I will tell 
him. It was because he durst not. It was the act of a coivard, who 
raises his arm to strike, but has not courage to give the blow. 

3. If ye are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen waiting for the 
butcher's knife ; if ye are men, follow me. 

4. Borne ! Rome ! thou hast been a tender nurse to me. 



EMPHASIS OF QUALITY. 161 

SECTION L. 
EMPHASIS OF QUALITY. 

Emphasis Of quality is a change, on certain words 
and phrases, from the prevailing quality to that of some 
other. 

This change is usually from a Pure Tone or Orotund 
to Aspirate, Pectoral, or Guttural. This is a very im- 
pressive form of emphasis. 

Examples — Aspirate. 

1. And then I cried for vengeance. 

2. Give me liberty or give me death. 

3. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign 
troop remained upon my country's shores I would never lay down 
m} r arms. ■ Never ! never ! never ! 

4. A lowly knee to earth he bent ; his father's hand he took. 
Wfiat was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook ? 



5. We are 

Pectoral Quality. 

1. that the slave had forty thousand lives ! 
My great revenge had stomach for them all. 

2. Tou souls of geese, 

That bear the shapes of men, how have you run 

From slaves that apes would beat! — Pluto and hell! 

All hurt behind; backs red, and faces pale 

With flight and aguedfear ! Mewl, and charge home, 

Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe 

And make my wars on you : look toH. Come on. 

Guttural Quality. 

1. Whence and what art thou, execrable shape ! 

2. Thou stand'st at length before me undisguised, 
Of all earth's groveling crew the most accursed. 

11 



162 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Thou worm ! thou viper ! to thy native earth 
Return ! Away ! Thou art too base for man 
To tread upon. Thou scum ! thou reptile ! 






SECTION LI. 
EMPHASIS OF PITCH. 

Emphasis Of pitch is a sudden raising or lowering of 
pitch on certain words and phrases, either through the 
discrete or concrete movement. 

Discrete Emphasis of Pitch is expressed by any varia- 
tion on the emphatic word or phrase from the prevailing 
pitch. 

Examples — Discrete Movemeot. 

Very High Pitch. 

1. Simpson came up with his face pale as ashes, and said, " Cap- 
tain, the ship is on fire." 

Then "Fire! fire! fire!" on shipboard. 

2. Hurrah, hurrah, for Sheridan ! 
Hurrah, hurrah, for horse and man ! 

3. " Charge ! " Trump and drum awoke, 
Onward the bondmen broke ; 
Bayonet and saber-stroke 

Vainly opposed their rush. 



Very Low Pitch. 
[From "The Oath."— T. B. Read.'] 

Te freemen, how long will ye stifle 
The vengeance that justice inspires ? 

"With treason how long will ye trifle 

And shame the proud name of your sires ? 

Out, out with the sword and the rifle 
In defense of your homes and your fires. 



EMPHASIS OF PITCH. 163 

The flag of the old Kevolution 

Swear firmly to serve and" uphold, 
That no treasonous breath of pollution 
Shall tarnish one star of its fold. 
Swear I 
And hark, the deep voices replying, 
From the graves where your fathers are lying, 
" Swear, swear I " 

The Concrete Emphasis of Pitch is expressed by the 
voice sliding either up or down on the emphatic word 
or phrase. 

Examples — Concrete Movement. 
Emphasis of the Rising Third. 
This is the emphasis of simple interrogation, and is 
also employed to express the lower shades of emphatic 
distinction, as they occur in the diatonic melody. 

1. Gravest thou the goodly wings to the peacocks ? or wings and 

feathers unto the ostrich ? 

2. I love not man the less, but nature more, 
From these our interviews. 

3. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious. 

Emphasis of the Rising Fifth. 
The examples which illustrate the two preceding forms 
may be used for illustration here by adding to the en- 
ergy with which they are pronounced. The intervals of 
the fifth* are of more rare occurrence than the third. 
The following additional examples must suffice. 

Concrete. 

1. "Wouldst thou be king ? 

2. What though the field be lost ? all is not lost. 

Note. — When the emphatic rise, as in this last example, occurs on the last sylla- 
ble or word of a declarative sentence, it must of course annul the cadence ; so also 
if it occurs near the close. 



164 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Emphasis of the Rising Octave. 
This is the most earnest expression of interrogative 
intonation, and is never used in grave discourse. Its 
appropriate expression is that of sneer or raillery. The 
rise is concrete when it occurs on long syllables ; when 
on short or immutable syllables, it is formed by a 
change of radical pitch. 

Concrete. 

1. Moneys is your suit. 
"What should I say to you ? Should I not say, 
Hath a dog money ? Is it possible 

A cur can lend three thousand ducats ? 

2. A king's son ? You Prince of "Wales ? 

Emphasis of Downward Third. 

1. Does beauteous Tamar view, in this clear fount,, 
Herself, or heaven ? 

2. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife. 

Examples of Downward Fifth. 

1. Seems, madam ! nay, it is ; I know not seems. 

2. Before the sun, before the heavens, thou wert. 

Example of Downward Octave. 

Art thou that traitor angel? art thou he 

Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith till then ■ 

Unbroken ? and in proud rebellious arms, 

Drew after him the third part of heaven's sons, 

Conjured against the Highest ? For which both thou 

And they, outcast from G-od, are here condemned 

To waste eternal days in woe and pain. 

And reckonest thou thyself with spirits of heaven, 

Hell-doomed, and breath'st defiance here, and scorn, 

Where I reign King ? and, to enrage thee more, 

Thy King and Lord. 



EMPHASIS OF MOVEMENT. 165 

The Waves of the Voice are also often employed to 
give emphasis, particularly in the expression of irony 
and scorn. 

Examples — Waves. 

1. upright judge ! Mark, Jew! a learned judge ! 

2. The atrocious crime of being a young man. 

3. ! but he paused upon the brink ! 

SECTION LH. 
EMPHASIS OF MOVEMENT. 

Emphasis Of movement is a sudden change, on certain 
words and phrases, from the prevailing movement. 

Examples. 

Slow Movement. 

1. Not among the prisoners — Missing ! 

That was all the message said. 

2. " Cyrus Drew ! " — then a silence fell — 
This time no answer followed the call. 

Rapid Movement. 

3. His person partook the character of his mind : if the one never 
yielded in the cabinet, the other never bent in the field. Nature had no 
obstacles that he did not surmount, space no opposition that he did 
not spurn; and whether amid Alpine rocks, Arabian sands, or polar 
snows, he seemed proof against peril, and empowered with ubiquity ! 
The whole continent of Europe trembled at beholding the audacity of 
his designs and the miracle of their execution. 

Great care will be required on the part of the public 
speaker to guard against too frequent emphasis. When 
there are many words in a passage strongly significant 
of emotion or passion, a temptation arises to load the 
delivery with emphasis. 



166 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

It must be borne in mind that too frequent emphasis 
destroys the effect of emphasis, which consists essen- 
tially in distinguishing the most significant words and 
phrases from the others with which they stand imme- 
diately connected. Again, great care will be required 
to guard against the restriction of the voice to but one 
or two of the many modes of emphasis, and the excess- 
ive use of the particular mode employed, so that color- 
ing becomes caricaturing. 

" Many readers and speakers seem to have no practical- 
notion of any other mode of emphasizing a word, but 
by throwing upon it a decided stress of voice, and their 
delivery is characterized by a perpetual occurrence of 
ictus upon ictus, stroke upon stroke, of heavy enunciation 
that soon wearies the ear, and at the same time fails of 
its designed effect. There being no distinction, there is, 
so far, no emphasis. A perfect command should be ac- 
quired over all the varieties of emphatic expression, so 
that without effort, as it were, spontaneously, the deliv- 
ery shall proceed, colored, as the ever-varying shades of 
thought and feeling shall require, with correspondingly 
various modifications of the utterance. 

" The other fault, of exaggerating every instance of 
emphatic expression, is not less common. Many seem 
to have no notion of degrees or shades of coloring in 
emphasis. To emphasize is ever to raise to a certain 
fixed degree of prominence in the delivery. They have 
no conception how a skillful painter brings out a feature 
by a single delicate stroke of his pencil, and when they 
wish to emphasize at all, they daub and caricature. 
Where a skillful speaker or reader will start the tear of 
his hearer by a single semitone or a tremor upon a sin- 
gle word, they rave and rant with violent labor of voice, 
and only stun or disgust at last instead of exciting an 



CLIMAX. 167 

emotion. Trying to shade a parenthetical expression, 
such readers can only reduce the volume of voice to 
almost whispering notes, and lower the pitch a third or 
a fifth, to spring back again with a violent skip and an 
explosion upon the leading part of the expression, pain- 
fully jerking and rending the nerves of hearing, while 
yet they utterly fail of their object to exhibit the just 
relations of the thought." 

SECTION LIIL 
CLIMAX. 

Climax is an utterance gradually increasing in inten- 
sity, and changing in pitch and movement. No definite 
rules can be given as to the degree of intensity or the 
changes in pitch and movement. Only the sentiment 
can determine this. Generally the changes will be from 
a middle or low to a high pitch, and from a moderate or 
slow to a rapid movement ; yet this rule will often be 
reversed. Sometimes the Climax will be heightened by 
a change in the quality of voice, as in the eleventh ex- 
ample, in which each repetition of the word never de- 
mands a more aspirate quality. The Climax is employed 
in the delivery of those sentences only which rise as it 
were step by step in importance, dignity and force. 

Examples. 

Climax. 

1. It is a religion by which to live, a religion by which to die ; a 
religion that cheers in darkness, relieves in perplexity, and guides the 
inquirer to that blessed land "where the wicked cease from troubling, 
and the weary are at rest." 

2. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us 
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. 



168 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

3. Add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to 
knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to pa- 
tience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to broth- 
erly kindness, charity. 

4. "Was that country a desert ? No ; it was rich and fertile, culti- 
vated and populous. Friendship was its inhabitant ; love was its 
inhabitant ; liberty was its inhabitant ; all bounded by the stream of 
the Eubicon. 

5. Of all God made upright, and in their nostrils breathed a living 
soul, most prone, most earthy, most debased ; of all that sell eternity 
for time, none bargain on so easy terms with death. 

6. "What a piece of work is man ! How noble in reason ! How in- 
finite in faculties ! In form and moving, how express and admirable I 
In action, how like an angel ! In apprehension, how like a god ! 

7. I tell you, though you, though the whole world, though an 
angel from heaven, were to declare the truth of it, I would not be- 
lieve it. 

8. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill, 
and there they will remain forever. 

9. But every-where, spread all over in characters of living light, 
blazing on all its ample folds, as they float over the sea and over the 
land, and in every wind under the whole heaven, that other senti- 
ment, dear to every American heart — Liberty and Union, now and 
forever, one and inseparable. 

10. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, 
the active, the brave. 

11. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign 
troop remained in my country I never would lay down my arms ; no, 
never, never, never. 

12. I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes, strong provoca- 
tions, bitter, burning wrongs, I have within my heart's hot cells shut 
up to leave you in your lazy dignities. 

13. Days, months, years, and ages shall circle away, 
And still the. vast waters above thee shall roll ; 
Earth loses thy pattern forever and ay ; 
sailor boy, sailpr boy, peace to thy soul I 



CLIMAX. 169 

■> • 

14. By your gracious patience 
I will a round, unvarnished tale deliver 

Of my whole course of love ; what drugs, what charms, 
What conjuration, and what mighty magic — 
For such proceedings I am charged withal — 
I won his daughter with. 

15. The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Tea, all that it inherit, shall dissolve, 

And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
Leave not a rack behind. 

16. When this fiery mass 

Of living valor, rolling on the foe 
And burning with high hope, shall molder cold and low. 

IT. Let but the commons hear this testament, 
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read,) 
And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, 
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood — 
Tea, beg a hair of him, for memory, 
And, dying, mention it within their wills, 
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy 
Unto their issue. 

18. Not such as swept along 

By the full tide of power, the conqueror led 
To crimson glory and undying fame. 

19. TeU me I hate the bowl ? 

• Hate is a feeble word : 
I loathe, abhor ; my very soul 

With strong disgust is stirred 
Whene'er I see, or hear, or tell 

Of the dark beverage of hell. 

20. Clarence has come ! false, fleeting, perjured Clarence ! 

21. And Douglas, more, I tell thee here; 

Here, in thy pitch of pride ; 
Here, in thy hold, thy vassals near : 
I tell thee thou'rt defied. 



170 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

SECTION LIV. 
GROUPING. 

Grouping is that nice modulation and adaptation of 
the voice to the sentiment expressed which renders the 
utterance not only more impressive, but more pleasing 
to the ear. It is the sine qua non of excellence in read- 
ing and speaking. 

Without it success cannot be attained. 

The public speaker may have perfect command of all 
other elements of utterance, yet if he fails in grouping 
he fails in that element which more than all others com- 
mands the attention of an audience. 

Grouping is a term borrowed from painting, and is to 
reading and speaking what the adjustment of the figures 
is to the picture — that which gives beauty and expression 
to the whole. 

As he is not regarded as the most skillful artist who 
can paint most perfectly each separate figure, but he 
who by his superior judgment and taste groups his fig- 
ures into one harmonious picture ; so he is not the best 
reader or speaker who possesses the most cultivated 
voice, or can most perfectly illustrate each separate ele- 
ment, but he who by his cultivated taste and judgment 
most pleasantly modulates his voice, and best ad # apts it 
to the sentiment he expresses. 

To change the figure, command of Form, Force, 
Quality, Stress, Pitch, Movement, etc., are the flowers 
out of which the speaker is to weave the bouquet of 
delivery. It is upon this part, which may be termed 
the aesthetics of Elocution, that so many public speakers 
fail. 

It is not sufficient that speaking be correct ; it must be 
pleasing and impressive. 



GROUPING. 171 

It was to perfect grouping that Booth studied thirty 
years the delivery of the Lord's Prayer, and then said 
that he did not know how to repeat it ; it was to perfect 
grouping that the elder Kean repeated the three words, 
" Was that thunder ! " for an hour every night during 
a voyage of a month across the Atlantic Ocean, and it 
was the reward of his toil and the evidence of his suc- 
cess when the audience rose to their feet at his thrilling 
utterance of the word on the occasion of his first benefit 
in Drury Lane Theater, after his return to his native 
land ; it was to perfect grouping that Cicero traveled in 
foreign countries, and Demosthenes declaimed on the 
sea-shore ; and it was the perfection of grouping that so 
distinguished the delivery of Clay,. Everett, Phillips and 
Gough. 

When the student shall have mastered all the previous 
elements he will then have begun, and only begun, the 
study of Elocution. 

Upon no other part of the subject is it so difficult to 
give definite instruction. 

Grouping consists not in control of any one, but of all 
elements of utterance. It is not any particular blend- 
ing, but an endless variety of blendings. It cannot be 
said of James E. Murdoch's reading (and he is perhaps 
the best reader in America) that as he groups so others 
should group, nor will he necessarily group the same 
selection twice in the same way. 

Grouping is, in short, the exhibition of the same power 
that is displayed by the musical composer when he ar- 
ranges the notes into a pleasing tune. 

To illustrate : if the following verse be read with Ef- 
fusive Form, Pure Tone, Subdued Force, Median Stress, 
Low Pitch, and Slow Movement, it will be read cor- 
rectly, though it may not be read aesthetically. 



172 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Examples : I. 

[From "Missing."] 

Not among the suffering wounded, 

Not among the peaceful dead, 
Not among the prisoners — Missing : 

That was all the message said. 

Let the reading be grouped in the following manner, 
and it will not only be more impressive, but more pleas- 
ing to the ear : 

Give the first line with Moderately Subdued Force, 
Median Stress, Low Pitch, and Slow Movement ; the 
next line with less force and slower movement ; the 
third line, to the word " missing," with more force, 
higher pitch, and faster movement than the first line 
was given ; the word " missing " with more subdued 
force, lower pitch, and slower movement than the second 
line was given ; the fourth line with more force, higher 
pitch, and faster movement than the second line, though 
not so great as the first line. 

It must be borne in mind that all these changes must 
be under the general heads of Pure Tone, Effusive 
Form, Median Stress, Low Pitch, and Slow Movement, 
though in diiferent degrees. 

Now it is not claimed that this grouping is the only 
one, nor the best one; it is only presented as an illus- 
tration. 

II. 

[From "No Excellence Without Labor." — Wirt.] 

The education, moral and intellectual, of every individual must be 
chiefly his own work. Rely upon it that the ancients were right — 
both in morals and intellect we give their final shape to. our own 
characters,, and thus become emphatically the architects of our own 
fortunes. 



GROUPING. 173 

The above extract may be read correctly by giving it 
Expulsive Form, Pure Tone, Moderate Force, Radical 
Stress, Middle Pitch, Moderate Movement ; still it might 
be very monotonous. 

It may be grouped in the following manner : 
Give the words, " The education," with the above at- 
tributes, in a moderate degree ; upon the words " moral 
and intellectual" slightly reduce the force, lower the 
pitch, slow the movement and moderate the stress ; 
give " of every individual " with about the same degree 
of force, stress, pitch and movement as " the education," 
though gradually increased ; " must be " will require 
additional force and stress ; " chiefly " should be dropped 
to about the same as " moral and intellectual " were 
given ; " his own work " begin with nearly the same 
force, stress, pitch and movement as upon " must be," 
and close gently with the cadence. Give " Rely upon it 
that the ancients were right " with the attributes slightly 
increased from the close of the last sentence ; " both in 
morals and intellect " will require less force, slower 
movement and lower pitch than " rely upon it the an- 
cients were right ;" " we give their final shape to our 
characters, and thus become " should begin with more 
force, higher pitch, and more decided stress than " rely 
upon it," etc., was begun, and these attributes should be 
gradually increased to the close of the word " become." 
" Emphatically " being an emphatic word, will require a 
decided increase of Force, Stress and elevation of Pitch, 
which should glide down on that word through the 
concrete movement at least a fifth. The -Force, Stress 
and Movement should be a slight increase on what it 
was on " become," and then gradually diminish to the 
close, giving the complete cadence on the words " our 
own fortunes." 



174 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Illustrations of Grouping might be multiplied indefi- 
nitely, but this will be sufficient, it is hoped, to clearly 
present the idea. It will be here that the skill of the 
student of Elocution will be most severely tested. Only 
by a frequent analysis, similar to the above, of the de- 
livery of passages can the highest success be attained. 
The results will richly compensate years of patient study 
and practice, and only thus can great results be ob- 
tained. 



ACTION. 175 



CHAPTER IV. 

ACTION. 

Action embraces all that part of delivery which ad- 
dresses itself to the Eye, as distinguished from the 
Voice, or that part which appeals to the Ear. Consid- 
ered as a just and elegant adaptation of every part of 
the body to the nature and import of the sentiment ex- 
pressed, action has always been regarded as one of the 
most essential parts of oratory. 

Its power, as Cicero observes, is much greater than 
that of words. 

Demosthenes regarded action as the first, second, and 
third qualification of an orator. It is the language of 
nature in the strictest sense, and makes its way to the 
heart without the utterance of a single sound. 

" Such, however, is the force of custom, that though 
we all confess the power and necessity ol this branch of 
public speaking, we find few that are hardy enough to 
put it in practice. Some of our most accomplished 
speakers in the pulpit, senate, and bar are very faulty in 
their use of action, and it is remarkable that those who 
are excellent in every other part of oratory are very de- 
ficient in this. The truth is, though the reason of action 
in speaking is in the nature of things, the difficulty of 
acquiring the other requisites of an orator, and the still 
greater difficulty of attaining excellence in action, (which 
after all our pains is less esteemed than excellences of 
another kind ;) these seem to be the reasons why action 



176 SCIENCE OF. ELOCUTION. 

is so little cultivated among us ; to this we may add 
that, so different are national tastes in this particular, 
that hardly any two people agree in the just proportion 
of this so celebrated and essential quality of an orator. 
Perhaps the finished action of a Cicero or a Demos- 
thenes would scarcely be borne in our times, though 
accompanied with every other excellence. 

" But though the oratory of the moderns does not 
require all those various evolutions of gesture which 
were almost indispensable in the ancients, yet a certain 
degree of it must necessarily enter into the composition 
of every good speaker. and reader. To be perfectly mo- 
tionless while we are pronouncing words which require 
force and energy, is not only depriving them of their 
necessary support, but rendering them unnatural and 
ridiculous. A very vehement address pronounced with- 
out any motion but that of the lips and tongue would 
be a burlesque upon the meaning, and produce laughter ; 
nay, so unnatural is this total absence of gesticulation, 
that it is not very easy to speak in this manner. 

"As some action, therefore, must necessarily accom- 
pany our words, it is of the utmost consequence that this 
be such as is suitable and natural. No matter how lit- 
tle, if it be but akin to the words and passions, for if 
foreign to them, it counteracts and destroys the very 
intention of delivery. The voice and gesture must har- 
monize and be in keeping with each other, and if there 
is not a mutual understanding and relntionship existing 
between them, discord must inevitably be the conse- 
quence. An awkward action, and such as is unsuitable 
to the words and passion, not only mars the effect of 
discourse, but is as painful to the eye as discord to 
the ear." 

The true end of action is not to exhibit the body and 



ACTION. 177 

limbs, but to give power to the utterance ; not to ex- 
hibit grace, but to convey explanation. 

As there is a tone of voice appropriate for the utter- 
ance of every sentiment and emotion, so also there is an 
appropriate attitude of body and expression of counte- 
nance. " Thus," as Austin remarks, " anger threatens, 
affright starts, joy laughs and dances, but nature does 
not by any means suggest (except it may be to some 
chosen few) the most dignified or graceful expressions 
of the various passions." 

These should be carefully studied and practiced, that 
we may accustom ourselves to the habit of assuming 
them easily in public. What Pope says of writing is 
equally true of action in oratory : 

" True ease in action comes from art, not chance; 
So those move easiest who have learned to dance." 

Only by continued and frequent practice can the pupil 
hope to acquire ease, grace and power of gesture. 

To present -an analysis of action, and thus facilitate 
the work of the student of Elocution, is the object of 
this part of the work. 

SECTION I. 

POSITIONS OF FEET. 

" The propriety of commencing this part of our sub- 
ject with a consideration of the Feet and Lower Limbs 
will become obvious to the learner as we pass along. 
To the orator nothing is unimportant which contributes 
to the general impression he makes upon his audience, 
and this depends very materially on the dignity and 
grace of his movements. And what particularly con- 
cerns us to remark at this point, is that dignity and 

grace in the standing figure are known to depend on 

12 



178 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

the positions of the lower limbs, which should be such as 
to give to the body both firmness of support and facility 
of movement. Mere firmness or stability can be secured 
when combined with every degree of awkwardness, and 
rude strength most frequently perhaps supports the 
weight of the body equally on both feet. Firmness and 
grace, however, are combined when the weight of the 
body is principally supported on one leg, and the other 
so placed as to preserve the balance of the body and 
keep it from tottering, at the same time that it is left 
free to move at will. Austin has remarked that this is 
the position adopted in the Apollo, the Antinous, and in 
other beautiful and well-executed statues. In this posi- 
tion the foot which supports the body is to be firmly 
planted, and the body so erect that a perpendicular line 
let fall from the center of the neck should pass through 
the heel of that foot. Either foot may thus support the 
body, and may be more or less advanced than the free 
foot, thus giving four positions,which are the principal ones 
suited to oratory. The conditions of all these are, first, 
that the feet are to be separated from each other only 
three or four inches ; second, that the toes of the foot 
which supports the body, as well as of the other, should 
be turned moderately outward ; and third, that the feet 
should be so placed that lines passing lengthwise through 
the two feet shall cross each other 
under and a little forward of the 
JUl foot least advanced. 

First Position. 

In this position the left foot is 

firmly planted, and supports the 

weight of the body. The right is 

rresT position. placed a little in advance, forming, 




POSITION OF FEET. 



179 



with the left, nearly an angle of forty-five degrees, and 
resting lightly on the ball of the great toe. The right 
knee is slightly bent. 



Second Position. 
In the second position the weight 
of the body is supported by the right 
foot, which is planted firmly. The left 
is placed a little in advance, resting 
lightly on the ball of the great toe, 
and, with the right, forms nearly an 
angle of forty-five degrees. Tne left 
knee is slightly bent. 




SECOND POSITION. 




THIED POSITION 



Third Position. 

In this position the weight of the 
body is upon the right foot, which is 
j| placed in advance of the left. The toe 
of the left foot balances the body, 
which is thrown a little forward. The 
heel of the left foot is elevated about 
an inch, and swings in toward the right 
foot. 



Fourth Position. 

In the fourth position the weight 
rests upon the left foot, which is 
placed a little in advance. The toe 
of the right foot balances the body, 
the heel inclining in to the left foot. 
The body is inclined forward. 




FOUETH POSITION. 



180 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

SECTION II. 
CHANGES IN POSITION. 

The changes of position should be made as quietly as 
possible, and usually by placing either backward or for- 
ward the foot not supporting the weight of the body. 

In the first part of a discourse but few changes of 
position should be made. 

SECTION III. 
POSITION OF BODY. 

Oratory requires only the erect position of self-sus- 
tained dignity, and allows no marked deviation from 
this position. 

To be more particular : the body of the speaker 
should be well balanced and sustained erect on the sup- 
porting limb ; the head likewise should be sustained 
with manliness and grace. He should front his audience, 
presenting himself, as Quintilian expresses it, cequo pec- 
tore, and with his face as well as his breast directed to 
those whom he addresses. This perfectly erect position 
of the body and the head should, however, yield to every 
gesture of the arm. 

SECTION IV. 
POSITION OF THE ARMS IN REPOSE. 

When the arms are not employed in gesture they 
should hang naturally by the side. 

This position, however, too long sustained becomes 
tiresome and monotonous, and requires change. Where 
the circumstances are favorable the left hand may rest 
gently on a table or stand, the thumb may be placed in 
a watch-guard, or the fingers placed between the buttons 



POSITION OF ARMS. 181 

of the vest. At times the left arm may be thrown be- 
hind the body. In various ways, the eye of the audience, 
as well as the monotony of the speaker, may be relieved 
by a nice adjustment of the body and arms. 

SECTION V. 
POSITIONS OF THE ARMS IN GESTURE. 

First. — In gesticulation, the arm should be free and 
unconstrained, the action proceeding from the shoulder 
rather than the elbow. The elbow should be slightly 
curved and flexible. 

Second. — The arm should be so moved that the hand 
will always describe curved lines instead of those which 
are straight and angular. The curve is the line of 
beauty, and grace in the action of the arm depends 
very materially on the observance of this principle. 

Third. — The arm should not remain stationary even 
for a moment while out in gesticulation. It should 
either be kept moving preparatory to another gesture, 
or return to the side. 

Fourth. — Gestures ordinarily should not be made 
at a greater angle than forty-five degrees from a hori- 
zontal line passing directly forward from the center of 
the breast. • 

Fifth. — In general there should be a point at which 
the gesture will terminate. This, in emphatic gesticu- 
lation, will be upon the word that demands the gesture, 
and just at the instant of the utterance of the accented 
part of the word. A mere swing of the arm, even 
though it describes a curved line ever so graceful, does 
not accomplish the important part of gesture. 

Sixth. — The ease and grace of the motion of the arm 
will depend on the free use of the joints of the shoulder, 



182 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

elbow and wrist. Without the free use of the wrist- 
joint particularly there can be no grace. 

Seventh. — Preference in gesticulation should be given 
to the right arm. As a general rule, when the right 
hand is employed in gesture, the weight of the body 
should be on the left foot, the right advanced. 

SECTION VI. 
THE HAND. 

The expressiveness of gesture depends largely on the 
hand. Next to the tones of the voice and' the expres- 
sions of countenance, the hand has the greatest variety 
and power of expression. Sheridan says : " Every one 
knows that with the hands we can demand or promise, 
call, dismiss, threaten, supplicate, ask, deny, show joy, 
sorrow, detestation, fear, confession, penitence, admiration, 
respect, and many other things now in common use." 

SECTION VII. 
POSITIONS OF THE HAND. 

The hand is prone when the palm is turned down- 
ward. 

It is supine when the palm is turned upward. 

It is vertical when the plane ©f the palm is perpendicu- 
lar to the horizon, the fingers pointing upward. 

The natural state of the fingers, when the arm is hang- 
ing freely by the side, or employed in unimpassioned 
gesture, is that in which the hand is fully open, with the 
forefinger nearly straight, and slightly separated from 
the middle finger ; the middle finger is more bent, and 
rests partly on the third finger, which it gently touches ; 
the little finger is still more bent, and slightly separated 
from the third finger ; the thumb is withdrawn from the 



ACCOMPANIMENTS OF GESTURE. 183 

palm, and so placed that a line from the top of it will be 
a little above the line of the forefinger. 

This arrangement of the fingers is observed in the 
Venus de Medicis, and other eminent specimens of both 
statuary and painting. 

The position of the hand, as regards the palm, most 
suitable to be adopted by the public speaker in unim- 
passioned gesticulation, is that which presents an inclina- 
tion from the supine of an angle of forty-five degrees, 
and accompanied with a slight bend of the wrist down- 
ward, in the direction of the little finger. 

In emphatic or impassioned gesture the hand may be 
closed as it is brought down. 

SECTION VIII. 
ACCOMPANIMENTS OF GESTURE.* 

1. Body and Countenance. — " The subordinate gesture 
is one of the accompaniments of the principal ; but there 
are other accompaniments to be attended to. The move- 
ments of the lower limbs, of the body, and of the head, 
must all join in harmony with the principal gesture of the 
hand, otherwise the movement will be but a mere imitation 
of nature. And even though the body and limbs should 
move in perfect concert, while the countenance should 
remain unmoved and unexcited, the entire action would 
be but that of a well-contrived automaton. With all of 
these at perfect command, and employed in harmony with 
the diversified melodies of the voice, nothing can be want- 
ing for the enforcement of either thought or feeling." 

2. Preparation and Termination of Gesture. — "Every 
act of gesture consists of two parts — the preparatory and 

* Tlie following pages on gesture so nearly embody our own view 
that they have been copied almost entire from Caldwell's Practical 
Elocution. 



184 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

the terminating movement. The last is that for which 
the gesture is made, and the former is but the prelim- 
inary movement, which of necessity precedes it. The 
collected state of the hand, for example, belongs exclu- 
sively to the preparatory part of gesture. Again, the 
hand cannot be brought downward in emphatic expres- 
sion till it has been elevated. The elevation of the arm 
and hand, then, is the preparatory part of such a gesture. 
Though, in one sense, this is entirely a subordinate part 
of gesture, yet on it depend essentially the force as well 
as the grace of its termination. It must be executed 
neither too early, so as to leave the arm too long sus- 
pended ; nor too late, so as to make the gesture short 
and hurried. It should appear easy and natural, be 
made in curved rather than in straight lines, and should 
seem to be prompted, as indeed it ought to be, by the 
rising thought." 

3. Transition of Gesture. — " When the hand has once 
been brought into action in gesture, instead of dropping 
to the side, and then being brought up again for a simi- 
lar purpose, it should generally remain in its position till 
relieved by the other hand, or till it passes into a state 
of preparation for a succeeding gesture. The term trari- 
sition may be applied to the passing thus from any one 
gesture to another, whether from one principal gesture 
to another of the same hand, or from the gesture of one 
hand to that of the other. No rules for such transitions 
can be given. The term is, however, used in a sense 
more analogous with the same term as applied to the 
voice when it is made to refer to such changes as arise 
from transitions in the sentiment, whether they are sud- 
den and abrupt, or more gradual, like those which take 
place in the regular progress of a discourse. At this 
point it need only be remarked, that these last-named 



QUALITIES OF GESTURE. 185 

transitions of gesture should never be made, except when 
dictated by such transitions of thought and sentiment as 
call for corresponding changes in the vocal expression." 



SECTION IX. 
QUALITIES OF GESTURE. 

The qualities on which the excellence of gesture de- 
pends are Simplicity, Propriety, Precision, Energy, Bold- 
ness, Variety, Grace, Magnificence. 

These will be briefly noticed. 

1. Simplicity of Gesture is perfectly free and unaf- 
fected, and appears to be the natural result of the situa- 
tion and sentiments of the speaker, presenting evidence 
neither of studied variety nor of reserve. Its opposite is 
affectation. 

2. Propriety of Gesture always indicates some obvious 
connection between the sentiment and the action. It 
implies the use of such gestures as are best suited to 
illustrate or to express the sentiment, and thus often 
calls into use the significant gestures. The opposite of 
this is solecism in gesture, implying the recurrence of 
false, contradictory, or unsuitable gestures. 

3. Precision of Gesture arises from the just prepara- 
tion, the due force, and the correct timing of the action. 
The stroke of the gesture must not only fall on the em- 
phatic syllable, but its force must exactly suit the char- 
acter of the sentiment and the speaker. This gives the 
same effect to action that neatness of articulation does 
to speech. The opposites are gestures which distract 
the attention, while they neither enforce nor illustrate 
the sentiment. Such are most of those which consist in 
a mere swing of the arm, while the stroke of the gesture 
is wanting. 



186 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

4. Energy of Gesture consists in the firmness and 
decision of the whole action, and these depend very 
materially on the precision with which the stroke of the 
gesture is made to Support the voice in marking the 
emphasis. Let bad habits be overcome, and a ready 
command of all the elements of gesture be acquired, 
then will energy of gesture be the necessary result of a 
clear head and a warm heart. Its opposites are feeble- 
7iess and indecision. 

5. Boldness of Gesture is exhibited in striking but 
unexpected positions, movements and transitions. It is 
the offspring of a daring self-confidence, which ventures 
to hazard any action which it is conceived may either 
illustrate or enforce. The courage thus to execute is 
valuable only when under the guidance of good taste. 
The opposite of this is tameness, which hazards nothing, 
is distrustful of its powers, and produces no great effect. 

6. Variety of Gesture consists in the adapting of gest- 
ure to the condition and ever- varying sentiment of the 
speaker, so as to avoid a too frequent recurrence of the 
same gesture, or the same set of gestures. It is opposed 
both to sameness of gesture and to mechanical variety. 

7. Grace of Gesture is the result of all other perfec- 
tions, arising from a dignified self-possession of mind, 
and the power of personal exertion practiced into facility 
after the best models and according to the truest taste. 
This usually, therefore, depends more on art than on 
nature, and has more to do with pleasing the fancy than 
with producing conviction. It suggests not a single 
movement, but simply preserves the gestures employed 
for other purposes from all awkwardness. The opposites 
of this are awkwardness, vulgarity or rusticity. 

Magnificence of Gesture is secured by perfect freedom 
of movement. The arm moves from the shoulder, and 



ADAPTATION OF GESTURE. 187 

the hand is carried through an ample space. The head 
moves freely, the body is erect, and the step is free and 
firm. Opposed to these are contracted gestures, con- 
strained motions, short steps and doubtful and timid 
movements. 

SECTION X. 
ADAPTATION OF GESTURE. 

Gesticulation should correspond to the sentiments ex- 
pressed "by the words. Unimpassioned didactic thought 
will require but little gesture. 

Descriptive thought will require more decided and 
various gesture. 

Argumentative thought, stirring appeals, impassioned 
addresses will require bold, energetic and magnificent 
gesticulation. 

Strong emotion, violent passion will require gestures 
corresponding to the feeling expressed. This can only 
be determined by a careful study of the passions. 

The importance of a good carriage and a pleasing 
address in appearing before an audience cannot be 
overestimated. 

It is from these the audience receive their first im- 
pressions of the speaker, and as their minds are not sup- 
posed to be occupied with any thing else, they are per- 
fectly free to criticise his manner. 

These movements, then, demand special attention. He 
should omit no proper mode of expressing respect for 
those before him, and thus bespeaking their favor. In 
general terms, so far as movement and gesture are con- 
cerned, the orator should present himself to the audience 
modestly, and without any show of self-confidence. 

After taking his position before the audience the 



188 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

speaker should make a very slight bow by a gentle bend 
of the whole body. 

In many cases, as in the sacred desk, the bow should 
be omitted altogether. 

Before leaving this part of the subject it may be well 
to callattention to some 

Significant Gestures. 

The Head and Face. 

The hanging down of the head denotes shame or grief; 
The holding of it up, pride or courage. 
To nod forward implies assent ; 
To toss the head back, dissent. 

The inclination of the head implies diffidence or 
languor. 

The head is averted in dislike or horror. 
It leans forward in attention. 

The Eyes. f 

The eyes are raised in prayer. 
They weep in sorrow. 
They burn in anger. 

They are downcast or averted in shame or grief. 
They are cast on vacancy in thought. 
They are cast in various directions in doubt and 
anxiety. 

The Arms. 

The placing of the hand on the head indicates pain or 
distress ; 

On the eyes, shame or sorrow ; 

On the lips, an injunction of silence ; 

On the breast, an appeal to conscience. 

The hand is waved or flourished in joy or contempt. 



ADAPTATION OF GESTURE. 189 

Both hands are held supine, or they are applied or 
clasped in prayer. 

Both are held prone in blessing. 

They are clasped or wrung in affliction. 

They are held forward and received in friendship. 

The Body. 

The body, held erect, indicates steadiness and courage ; 

Thrown back, pride ; 

Stooping forward, condescension or compassion ; 

Bending, reverence or respect ; 

Prostrate, the utmost humility or abasement. 

The Lower Limbs. 

The firm position of the lower limbs signifies courage 
or obstinacy. 

Bended knees indicate timidity or weakness. 

The lower limbs advance in desire or courage. 

They retire in aversion or fear ; 

Start, in terror ; 

Stamp, in authority or anger ; 

Kneel, in submission and prayer. 

These are a few of the simple gestures which may be 
termed significant. 

SECTION XI. 
THE EYE AND COUNTENANCE. 

The Countenance has the greatest power of expression, 
and the Eye is the most expressive of all the features. 

So great is the facial power of expression that we can 
truly say " a speaking countenance." In the language of 
Quintilian, " This is the dominant power of expression. 
With this we supplicate ; with this we threaten ; with 



190 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

this we soothe ; with this we mourn ; with this we re- 
joice ; with this we triumph ; with this we make our 
submissions ; upon this the audience hang ; upon this 
they keep their eyes fixed ; this they examine and study 
even before a word is spoken ; this it is which excites in 
them favorable or unfavorable emotions ; from this they 
understand almost every thing ; often it becomes more 
significant than any words." 

It is said of Whitefield, the Prince of Pulpit Orators, 
His face was like a canvas, and upon it he painted every 
passion that stirs the human breast. It was at one mo- 
ment terrific, as if all the furies were enthroned on that 
dark brow; and next, as by a dissolving view, there would 
come forth an angelic sweetness that savored of heaven. 

" The expressive power of the eye is so great that it 
determines, in a manner, the expression of the whole 
countenance. Through it the soul makes its most clear 
and vivid manifestations of itself. Joy and grief, anger, 
pride, scorn, hatred, love, jealousy, pity ; in a word, all 
the passions and emotions of the human heart in all their 
degrees and outer workings with each other, express them- 
selves, with the utmost fullness and power, in the eyes. 

" Even animals are susceptible of its power. The dog 
watches the eye of his master, and discovers from it, 
before a word is spoken, whether he is to expect a caress 
or apprehend chastisement. 

"The lion cannot attack a man so long as the man 
looks him steadily in the eyes. 

" In order that the speaker may avail himself of this 
great and mysterious power of expression he must not 
allow his eyes to become fixed upon his manuscript, nor 
to assume a vacant expression under the influence of the 
intellectual operation of invention or remembering, nor 
to wander around the walls of the audience-room, nor to 



THE PASSIONS. 191 

follow the motions of the hands as if the speaker were 
looking at them. He must look at the audience, and 
scan their faces individually, in order to open a personal 
communication between himself and every one of them. 
He should not allow his eye to wander from the 
audience except when, by a glance, he indicates the di- 
rection of a gesture. Thus he will be enabled to com- 
mand their attention and awaken their sympathy, and 
his eye will naturally express and convey to them all 
the passions and emotions of his own heart." 

section xn. 

THE PASSIONS.* 

It now remains to say something of those expressions 
of countenance which mark the passions and emotions 
of the speaker. A full description of each would far 
transcend the bounds of a work of this kind. Only a 
few can be noticed, and these but briefly. 

" It should be remarked in passing that feeling cannot 
be expressed by words alone, or even by the tones of the 
voice. It finds its best, and ofttimes its only, expression 
in the flash of passion on the cheek, in the speaking eye, 
the contracted brow, the compressed lip, the heaving 
breast, the trembling frame, in the rigid muscle and the 
general bearing of the entire body ; and when emotion 
or passion thus speaks, its language is often confined to 
no particular part of the body, but the living frame as a 
whole sympathizes in the action." 

Aaron Hill, in his Essay on the Art of Acting, has 
made a bold attempt at such a description of the pas- 
sions as may enable an actor -or orator to adopt them 
mechanically, by showing that all the passions require 

* The following pages, on the Passions, have been adapted from. 
"Walker's Elocution. 



192 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

either a braced or relaxed state of the sinews, and a 
peculiar cast of the eye. 

It is certain that all the passions, when violent, brace 
the sinews ; grief which, when moderate, may be said to 
melt or relax the frame, when accompanied by anguish 
and bitter complainings becomes active and bracing. 
Pity seems never to rise to a sufficient degree of sorrow 
to brace the sinews, and anger, even in the slightest de- 
gree, seems to give a kind of tension to the voice and 
limbs. Thus Shakspeare has given us an admirable pict- 
ure of this passion in its violence, and has made this 
violent tension of the sinews a considerable part of its 
composition. 

Now imitate the action of the tiger ! 
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood; 
Lend fierce and dreadful aspect to the eye; 
Set the teeth close, and stretch the nostrils wide ; 
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 
To its full height. 

To this might be added that admirable picture of vio- 
lent anger which Shakspeare puts in the mouth of Suf- 
folk in the second part of Henry VI. : 

Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan, 
I would invent as bitter, searching terms, 
As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear, 
Delivered strongly through my fixed teeth, 
"With full as many signs of deadly hate 
As lean-faced Envy in her loathsome cave. 
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words, 
Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint, 
Mine hair be fixed on end like one distract, 
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban ; 
And even now my burdened heart would break, 
Should I not curse them. 

Who can read these admirable descriptions of anger 
without feeling his whole frame braced, and his mind 



A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 193 

strongly tinctured with the passion delineated? How 
much is it to be regretted that so great a master of the 
passions as Shakspeare has not left us a description simi- 
lar to this of every emotion of the soul ! But though he 
has not described every other passion like this, he has 
placed them all in such marking points of view as ena- 
bles us to see the workings of the human heart from his 
writings in a clearer and more affecting way than in any 
other of our poets ; and perhaps the best description 
that could be given us of the passions in any language 
may be extracted from the epithets he has made use of. 

SECTION XIII. 

A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 

TRANQUILLITY. 

Tranquillity appears by the composure of the counte- 
nance and general repose of the whole body, without 
the exertion of any one muscle. The countenance open, 
the forehead smooth, the eyebrows arched, the mouth 
not quite shut, and the eyes passing with an easy motion 
from object to object, but not dwelling long upon any 
one. To distinguish it, however, from insensibility it 
seems necessary to give it that cast of happiness which 
borders on cheerfulness. 

CHEERFULNESS. 

When joy is settled into a habit, or flows from a placid 
temper of mind, desiring to please and be pleased, it is 
called gayety, good humor, or cheerfulness. Cheerful- 
ness adds a smile to tranquillity, and opens the mouth 
a little more. 

Cheerfulness in Retirement 

Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, 
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 
13 



194 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION, 

Than that of painted pomp ? Are not these woods 
More free from peril than the envious court ? 
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, 
The season's difference ; as the icy fang 
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, 
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body 
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say, 
This is no flattery ; these are counselors 
That feelingly persuade me what I am. 
Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
That like a toad, ugly and venomous, 
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head ; 
And this our life exempt from public haunts, 
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. 

— As You Like It. 

MIETH. 

When joy arises from ludicrous or fugitive amuse- 
ments in which others share with us it is called merri- 
ment or mirth. 

Mirth or laughter opens the mouth horizontally, raises 
the cheeks high, lessens the aperture of the eyes, and, 
when violent, shakes and convulses the whole frame, fills 
the eyes with tears, and occasions holding the sides from 
the pain the convulsive laughter gives^them. 

Jaq. A fool, a fool I I met a fool i' the forest, 
A motley fool ; a miserable world ! 
As I do live by food, I met a fool ; 
"Who laid him down and basked him in the sun, 
And railed on lady Fortune, in good terms, 
In good set terms, and yet a motley fool. 
Good-morrow, fool, quoth I: No, sir, quoth he, 
Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune : 
And then he drew a dial from his poke ; 
And looking on it with lack -luster eye, 
Says, very wisely, It is ten o'clock. 
Thus may we see, quoth he, how the world wags. 
'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine, 
And after an hour more 'twill be eleven ; 






A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 195 

And so from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, 
And then from hour to hour we rot and rot, 
And thereby hangs a tale. "When I did hear 
The motley fool thus moral on the time, 
My luugs began to crow like chanticleer, 
That fools should be so deep contemplative ; 
And I did laugh, sans intermission, 
An hour by his dial. noble fool! 
A worthy fool I Motley's the only wear. 

JOY. 

A pleasing elation of mind on the actual or assured 
attainment of good, or deliverance from evil, is called 

joy- 
Joy, when moderate, opens the countenance with 
smiles, and throws, as it were, a sunshine of delectation 
over the whole frame. When it is sudden and violent 
it expresses itself by clapping the hands, raising the 
eyes toward heaven, and giving such a spring to the 
body as to make it attempt to mount up as if it could 
fly. When joy is extreme, and goes into transport, 
rapture and ecstacy, it has a wildness of look and gest- 
ure that borders on folly, madness and sorrow. 

Joy Expected. 
Ah ! Juliet, if the measure of thy joy 
Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more 
To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath 
This neighbor air, and let rich music's tongue 
Unfold the imagined happiness that both 
Receive in either by this dear encounter. 

— Romeo and Juliet. 

Joy Approaching to Transport. 
Oh ! joy, thou welcome stranger, twice three years 
I have not felt thy vital beam, but now 
It warms my veins, and plays about my heart ; 
A fiery instinct lifts me from the ground, 
And I could mount. 

— Br. Young's Revenge. 



196 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

PITY. 
Pity is benevolence to the afflicted. It is a mixture 
of love for an object that suffers, and a grief that we are 
not able to remove those sufferings. It shows itself in a 
compassionate tenderness of voice, a feeling of pain in 
the countenance, and a gentle raising and falling of the 
hands and eyes, as if mourning over the unhappy object. 
The mouth is open, the eyebrows are drawn down, and 
the features contracted or drawn together. 

Pity for a Departed Friend, 
Alas ! poor Yorick ! I knew him, Horatio ; a fellow of infinite 
jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thou- 
sand times, and now how abhorred in my imagination it is j my gorge 
rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how 
oft. "Where be your gibes now? Tour gambols? Tour songs? 
Tour flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table in a roar ? 
Not one now to mock your own grinning ! Quite chop-fallen I Now 
get thee to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, 
to this favor she must come ; make her laugh at that. — Hamlet. 

HOPE. 

Hope is a mixture of desire and joy agitating the 
mind and anticipating its enjoyment. It erects and 
brightens the countenance, spreads the arms and hands 
open as to receive the object of its wishes. The voice is 
plaintive and inclining to eagerness, the breath drawn 
inward more forcibly than usual in order to express our 
desires more strongly, and our earnest expectation of 
receiving the object of them. 

Collins, in his Ode on the Passions, gives us a beauti- 
ful picture of 

Hope. 

But thou, Hope ! with eyes so fair, 

What was thy delighted measure ? 

Still it whispered promised pleasure, 
And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail. 



A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 197 

Still would her touch the strain prolong, 
And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, 

She called on Echo still through all her song ; 
And, where her sweetest theme she chose, 
A soft responsive voice was heard at every close, 
And Hope, enchanted, smiled, and waved her golden hair. 



HATRED, AVERSION. 

Hatred or aversion draws back the body as if to avoid 
the hated object, the hands at the same time thrown 
outspread as if to keep it off. The face is turned away 
from that side toward which the hands are thrown out, 
the eyes looking angrily and obliquely the same way the 
hands are directed ; the eyebrows are contracted, the 
upper lip disdainfully drawn up, and the teeth set ; the 
pitch of the voice is low, but loud and harsh, the tone 
chiding, unequal, surly and vehement. 

Hatred Cursing the Object Hated. 

Poison be their drink, 
G-alL worse than gall the daintiest meat they taste ; 
Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress trees, 
Their sweetest prospects murdering basilisks, 
Their softest touch as smart as lizards' stings, 
Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss, 
And boding screech-owls make the concert full ; 
All the foul terrors of dark-seated hell 

— Henry VI. 

This seems Imitated by Dr. Young. 

Why, get thee gone, horror and night go with thee. 
Sisters of Acheron, go hand in hand, 
Go dance about the bower and close them in ; 
And tell them that I sent you to salute them. 
Profane the ground, and for th' ambrosial rose 
And breath of jessamin, let hemlock blacken, 
And deadly night- shade poison all the air : 
For the sweet nightingale may ravens croak, 
Toads pant, and adders rustle through the leaves : 



198 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

May serpents, winding up the trees, let fall 
Their hissing necks upon them from above, 
And mingle hisses — such as I would give them. 

— The 

Hatred of a Rival in Glory. 
He is my bane, I cannot bear him ; 
One heaven and earth can never hold us both ; 
Still shall we hate, and with defiance deadly 
Keep rage alive till one be lost for ever ; 
As if two suns should meet in one meridian, 
And strive in fiery combat for the passage. 

— Rome's Tamerlane. 

ANGER, RAGE, FURY. 

When hatred and displeasure rise high on a sudden 
from an apprehension of injury received, and perturba- 
tion of mind in consequence of it, it is called anger ; and 
rising to a very high degree, and extinguishing human- 
ity, it becomes rage and fury. 

Anger, when violent, expresses itself with rapidity, 
noise, harshness, and sometimes with interruption and 
hesitation, as if unable to utter itself with sufficient force. 
It wrinkles the brow, enlarges and heaves the nostrils, 
strains the muscles, clinches the fist, stamps with the 
foot, and gives a violent agitation to the whole body. 
The voice assumes the highest tone it can adopt consist- 
ently with force and loudness, though sometimes, to 
express anger with uncommon energy, the voice assumes 
a low and forcible tone. 

Anger and Scorn. 
Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes ! 
G-ehenna of the waters ! thou sea Sodom ! 
Thus I devote thee to the infernal gods ! 
Thee and thy serpent seed ! Slave, do thine office I 
Strike as" I struck the foe ! Strike as I would 
Have struck those tyrants ! Strike deep as my curse I 
Strike, and but once. 



A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 199 

Scorn and Violent Anger, Reproving. 
Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle ; 
I am no traitor's uncle; and that word — grace, 
In an ungracious mouth is but profane. 
Why have those banished and forbidden legs 
Dared once to touch a dust of England's ground ? 
But more than why — why have they dared to march 
So many miles upon her peaceful bosom ; 
Frightening her pale-faced villages with war, 
And ostentation of despised arms ? 
Comest thou because the anointed king is hence ? 
Why, foolish boy, the Mug is left behind, 
And in my loyal bosom lies his power. 
Were I but now the lord of such hot youth 
As when, brave Gaunt, thy father and myself 
Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men, 
From forth the ranks of many thousand French ; 
0, then, how quickly should this arm of mine, 
Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee, 
And minister correction to thy fault ! 

— Richard II. 

REVENGE. 

Revenge is a propensity and endeavor to injure the 
offender, which is attended with triumph and exultation 
when the injury is accomplished. It expresses itself like 
malice, but more openly, loudly and triumphantly. 

Determined Revenge. 
I know not : if they speak but truth of her, 
These hands shall tear her ; if they wrong her honor 
The proudest of them shall well hear it. 
Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine, 
Nor age so eat up my invention, 
Nor fortune made such havoc of my means, 
Nor my bad life 'reft me so much of friends, 
But they shall find awaked in such a kind, 
Both strength of limb and policy of mind, 
Ability in means, and choice of friends 
To quit me of them thoroughly. 

— Much Ado about Nothing. 



200 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Eager Revenge. 
I could play the woman with mine eyes, 
And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heaven, 
Cut short all intermission : front to front, 
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; 
"Within my sword's length set him ; if he 'scape, 
Heaven forgive him too 1 

— Macbeth. 

REPROACH. 

Reproach is settled anger or hatred, chastising the 
object of dislike by casting in his teeth the severest cen- 
sures upon his imperfections or misconduct. The brow 
is contracted, the lip turned up with scorn, the head 
shaken, the voice low, as if abhorring, and the whole 
body expressive of aversion. 

Reproaching with Want of Friendship. 
Tou have done that you should be sorry for. 
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats ; 
For I am armed so strong in honesty, 
That they pass me by as the idle wind 
Which I respect not. I did send to you 
For certain sums of gold, which you denied me ; 
For I can raise no money by vile means : 
By heaven, I had rather coin my heart, 
And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring 
From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash 
By any indirection. I did send 
To you for gold to pay my legions, 
Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius ? 
Should I have answered Caius Cassius so ? 
When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous, 
To lock such rascal counters from his friends, 
Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts ; 
Dash him to pieces ! 

Reproach with Want of Courage and Spirit. 
Thou slave ! thou wretch ! thou coward I 
Thou little valiant, great in villainy I 



A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 201 

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side ! 
Thou fortune's champion, thou dost never fight 
But when her humorous ladyship is by 
To teach thee safety! Thou art perjured, too, 
And sooth'st up greatness. "What a fool art thou, 
A ramping fool, to brag, and stamp, and sweat, 
Upon my party ! Thou cold-blooded slave, 
Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side ? 
Been sworn my soldier ? bidding me depend 
Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength ? 
And dost thou now fall over to my foes ? 
Thou wear a lion's hide ? Doff it for shame, 
And hang a calf s skin on those recreant limbs. 

FEAR AND TERROR. 

Fear is a mixture of aversion and sorrow, discompos- 
ing and debilitating the mind upon the approach or an- 
ticipation of evil. When this is attended with surprise 
and much discomposure it grows into terror and con- 
sternation. 

Fear, violent and sudden, opens wide the eyes and 
mouth, shortens the nose, gives the countenance an air 
of wildness, cOvers it with deadly paleness, draws back 
the elbows parallel with the sides, lifts up the open 
hands, with the fingers spread, to the height of the 
breast, at some distance before it, so as to shield it from 
the dreadful object. One foot is drawn back behind the 
other, so that the body seems shrinking from the dan- 
ger, and putting itself in a posture for flight. The heart 
beats violently, the breath is quick and short, and the 
whole body is thrown into a general tremor. The voice 
is weak and trembling, the sentences are short and the 
meaning confused and incoherent. 

Terror of Evening and Mght Described. 
Light thickens ; and the crow 
Makes wing to the rooky wood ; 



202 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Good things of day begin to droop and drouse ; 
While night's black agents to their prey do rouse. 
Thou marvel' st at my words ; but hold thee still ; 
Things bad begun, make strong themselves by ill. 

— Macbeth. 

Fear from a Dreadful Object 

Angels and ministers of grace, defend us 1 

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damned, 

Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, 

Be thy intents wicked or charitable, 

Thou com'st in such a questionable shape 

That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, 

King, father ! Boyal Dane : answer me ! 

Let me not burst in ignorance. 

— Hamlet. 

Horror at a Dreadful Apparition. 

How ill this taper burns ! ha! who comes here ? 
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes 
That shapes this monstrous apparition. 
It comes upon me. Art thou any thing ? 
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, 
That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stare. 
Speak to me. what thou art ! 

— Julius Cesar. 

Fear of being Discovered in Murder. 

Alack ! I am afraid they have awaked, 
And 'tis not done! the attempt, and not the deed, 
Confound us. Hark ! I laid their daggers ready, 
He could not miss them ! Had he not resembled 
My father as he slept I had done't ! 

— Macbeth. 

SORROW. 

Sorrow is a painful depression of spirit upon the depri- 
vation of good or arrival of evil. When it is silent and 
thoughtful it is sadness ; when long indulged, so as to 
prey upon and possess the mind, it becomes habitual, and 
grows into melancholy ; when tossed by hopes and fears, 



A PICTUKE OF THE PASSIONS. 203 

it is distraction ; when these are swallowed up by it, it 
settles into despair. 

In moderate sorrow the countenance is dejected, the 
eyes are cast downward, the arms hang loose, sometimes 
a little raised, suddenly to fall again ; the hands open, 
the fingers spread, and the voice plaintive, frequently 
interrupted with sighs. But when this passion is in ex- 
cess it distorts the countenance, as if in agonies of pain ; 
it raises the voice to the loudest complainings, and some- 
times even to cries and shrieks ; it wrings the hands, 
beats the head and breast, tears the hair, and throws 
itself on the ground, and, like other passions in excess, 
seems to border on frenzy. 

Sadness. 

In sooth, I know not why I am so sad. 
It wearies me ; you say it wearies you : 
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, 
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof 'tis born, 
I am to learn. 

And such a want- wit sadness makes of me, 
That I have much ado to know myself. 

Silent Grief. 

Seems, madam ! nay, it is ; I know not seems. 
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, 
Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage, 
No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, 
Together with all forms, modes, shows of grief, 
That can denote me truly: these, indeed, seem, 
For they are actions that a man might play ; 
But I have that within which passeth show ; 
These but the trappings and the suits of woe. 

SNEER. 

Sneer is ironical approbation, where, with a voice and 
countenance of mirth somewhat exaggerated, we cast 






204 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

the severest censures ; it is hypocritical mirth and good 
humor, and differs from the real by the sly, arch, satir- 
ical tone of voice, look and gesture which accompany it. 

Scoffing at Supposed Cowardice. 

Satan beheld their plight, 

And to his mates thus in derision called : 

friends, why come not on these victors proud ? 

Erewhile they fierce were coming, and when we, 

To entertain them fair with open front 

And breast, (what could we more ?) propounded terms 

Of composition, straight they changed their minds, 

Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell, 

As they would dance ; yet for a dance they seemed 

Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps 

For joy of offered peace ; but I suppose, 

If air proposals once again were heard, 

We should compel them to a quick result. 

— Paradise Lost. 

STJEPEISE, WONDER, AMAZEMENT, ASTONISHMENT. 

An uncommon object produces wonder. If it appears 
suddenly it begets surprise, surprise continuing becomes 
amazement, and, if the object of wonder comes gently to 
the mind, and arrests the attention by its beauty or grand- 
eur, it excites admiration, which is a mixture of appro- 
bation and wonder : so true is that observation of Dr. 
Young in the tragedy of the Revenge : 

Late time shall wonder that my joys shall raise, 
For wonder is involuntary praise. 

Wonder or amazement opens the eyes and makes 
them appear very prominent. It sometimes raises them to 
the skies, but more frequently fixes them on the object. 
The mouth is open, and the hands are held up nearly 
in the attitude of fear. The voice is at first low, but so 
emphatical that every word is pronounced slowly and 



A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 205 

with energy. When, by the discovery of something 
excellent in the object of wonder, the emotion may be 
called admiration, the eyes are raised, the hands lifted 
np or clapped together, and the voice elevated with ex- 
pressions of rapture. 

Surprise at Unexpected Events. 

Gone to be married ? gone to swear a peace ? 

False blood to false blood joined ? gone to be friends ? 

Shall Lewis have Blanche, and Blanche those provinces ? 

It is not so : thou hast misspoke, misheard : 

Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again : 

It cannot be ! thou dost but say 'tis so ! 

What dost thou mean by shaking' of thy head ? 

Why dost thou look so sadly on my son ? 

What means that hand upon that breast of thine ? 

Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum, 

Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds ? ' 

Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words ? 

Then speak again ; not all thy former tale, 

But this one word, whether thy tale be true. 

— King John. 
VEXATION. 

Vexation, besides expressing itself by the looks, 
gestures, tone and restlessness of perplexity, adds to 
these complaint, fretting and remorse. 

Vexation at Neglecting One's Duty. 

what a rogue and peasant slave am I ! 

Is it not monstrous, that this player here, 

But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, 

Could force his soul so to his own conceit, 

That, from her working, all his visage wann'd: 

Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, 

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting 

With forms to his conceit ? And all for nothing ! 

For Hecuba ! 

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba^ 

•Shat he should weep for her ? 

— Hamlet. 



206 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



SHAME. 

Shame, or a sense of appearing to disadvantage before 
one's own fellow-creatures, turns away the face from the 
beholders, covers it with blushes, hangs the head, casts 
down the eyes, draws down and contracts the eyebrows. 
It either strikes the person dumb, or, if he attempts to 
say any thing in his own defense, causes his tongue to 
falter, confounds his utterance, and puts him upon mak- 
ing a thousand gestures and grimaces to keep himself in 
countenance ; all which only heighten his confusion and 
embarrassment. 

Shame at being Convicted of a Crime. 

my dread lord, 
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, 
To think I can be undiscernible 
When I perceive your grace, like power divine, 
Hath looked upon my passes ; then, good prince, 
No longer session hold upon my shame, 
But let my trial be mine own confession : 
Immediate sentence, then, and sequent death, 
Is all the grace I beg. 

— Measure for Measure. 

GEAVITY. 

Gravity, or seriousness, as when the mind is fixed, or 
deliberating on some important subject, smooths the 
countenance, and gives it an air of melancholy ; the eye- 
brows are lowered, eyes cast downward, the mouth al- 
most shut, and sometimes a little contracted. The pos- 
ture of the body and limbs is composed, and without 
much motion ; the speech slow and solemn, the tone 
without much variety. 

Grave Deliberation on War and Peace. 
Fathers, we once again are met in council : 
Caesar's approach has summoned us together, 



A PICTURE OF THE PASSIONS. 207 

And Rome attends her fate from our resolves. 

How shall we treat this bold aspiring man ? 

Success still follows him and backs his crimes: 

Pharsalia gave him Rome. Egypt has since 

Received his yoke, and the whole Nile is Cesar's. 

"Why should I mention Juba's overthrow, 

Or Scipio's death ? Numidia's burning sands 

Still smoke with blood*; 'tis time we should decree 

"What course to take : our foe advances on us, 

And envies us even Libya's sultry deserts. 

Fathers, pronounce your thoughts ; are they still fixed, 

To hold it out and fight it to the last ? 

Or are your hearts subdued at length, and wrought, 

By time and ill success, to a submission ? 

Sempronius, speak. 

— Addison 1 s Cato. 

COMMANDING. 

Commanding requires an air a little more peremptory, 
with a look a little severe or stern. The hand is held 
out and moved toward the person to whom the order is 
given, with the palm upward, and sometimes it is ac- 
companied by a nod of the head to the person com- 
manded. If the command be absolute, and to a person 
unwilling to obey, the right hand is extended and pro- 
jected forcibly toward the person commanded. 

Commanding Combatants to Fight 

We were born not to sue, but to command ; 
"Which since we cannot do to make you friends, 
Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, 
At Coventry, upon St. Lambert's day; 
There shall your swords and lances arbitrate 
The swelling difference of your settled hate. 
Since we cannot atone you, you shall see 
Justice decide the victor's chivalry. 
Lord Marshal, command our officers at arms 
Be ready to direct these home alarms. 

— Richard II 



208 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



Trifling as the preceding selection of examples of the 
passions may appear, it is presumed it will be found 
singularly useful to public speakers in general, and to 
those in particular who are training themselves or are 
being trained for the elegant, refined and dignified art 
of public speaking. 



PAET II. 
DEDUCTIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

STYLES. 

If the discussion of the principles under Part I, Chapter 
III, has been clearly apprehended, it will be readily per- 
ceived that the following thirteen styles are the logical 
deductions therefrom. 

In some one of these styles, or a combination of two 
or more of them, with at times, in the expression of 
certain emotions and passions, the change of a single 
attribute, every form of thought and feeling may be 
appropriately and impressively delivered. 

To attempt to read or speak in public without first 
determining the Form, Quality, Force, Stress, Pitch and 
Movement the sentiment to be uttered should receive, 
will be as little likely to be crowned with success as 
would be the effort of one who should presume to sing 
in public without first determining the tune he would 
use or the notes composing that tune. 

To assist the student, therefore, in determining the 
attributes of which each style is composed, the dia- 
gram on the following page is commended to his care- 
ful consideration. 

14 






210 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



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CLASSIFICATION. 211 

SECTION I. 
EXPLANATION. 

In the following classification of selections it is not 
claimed that every word, or even every line of each se- 
lection, can only be uttered, appropriately, in the style 
under which it is classed, but that the selection as a 
whole belongs under that style. 

It not unfrequently will happen that a selection will 
begin in one style and close in another ; nay more, the 
different lines of a single verse may belong under as many 
different styles. 

As there is a grouping belonging to each style, which 
consists in the nice modulation of the voice on the attri- 
butes belonging to that style, so in the reading of any 
selection, the delivery of any lecture, speech or oration, 
there is a grouping of the delivery, as a whole, which con- 
sists in changing the style of utterance to suit the vary- 
ing sentiment expressed. 

It is this command of every style and the ability to 
change at pleasure which so distinguishes the delivery 
of the accomplished speaker from that of the untrained 
novice. 



212 • SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER II. 

PATHETIC STYLE. 



The Pathetic Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
that form of thought which, in a quiet and tranquil man- 
ner, is designed to move the tender emotions — as grief, 



sorrow, sadness, etc. 



The Death-Bed. 

Tliornas Hood. 

1. We watched her breathing through the night, 

Her breathing, soft and low, 
As in her breast the wave of life 
Kept heaving to and fro. 

2. So silently we seemed to speak, 

So slowly moved about, 
As we had lent her half our powers 
To eke her living out. 

3. Our very hopes belied our fears, 

Our fears our hopes belied ; 
We thought her dying when she slept, 
And sleeping when she died. 

4. For when the morn came, dim and sad, 

And chill with early showers, 
Her quiet eyelids closed — she had 
Another morn than ours. 



The Pauper's Death-Bed. 

Mrs. Southey. 
1. Tread softly ; bow the head, 
In reverent silence bow ; 
No passing bell doth toll ; 
Yet an immortal soul 
Is passing now. 



PATHETIC STYLE. 213 

2. Stranger! however great, 

"With, lowly reverence bow ; 
Theirs one in that poor shed, 
One by that paltry bed — 

Greater than thou. 

3. Beneath that beggar's roof, 

Lo ! Death doth keep his state ; 
Enter; no crowds attend; 
Enter ; no guards defend 

This palace-gate. 

4. That pavement, damp and cold, 

No smiling courtiers tread; 
One silent woman stands, 
Lifting with meager hands 

A dying head. 

5. No mingling voices sound : 

An infant wail alone, 
A sob suppressed; again 
That short, deep gasp — and then 

The parting groan ! 

6. change ! O wondrous change ! 

Burst are the prison-bars : 
This moment there, so low, 
So agonized — and now 

Beyond the stars! 

7. change ! stupendous change ! 

There lies the soulless clod ; 
The sun eternal breaks, 
The new immortal wakes — 

"Wakes with his God. 



My Mothek's Bible. 

G. P. Morris. 

1. This book is all that's left me now ! 
Tears will unbidden start ; 
With faltering lip and throbbing brow, 
I press it to my heart ; 






214 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

For many generations past, 

Here is our family tree ; 
My mother's hands this Bible clasped ; 

She, dying, gave it me. 

2. Ah I well do I remember those 

"Whose names these records bear, 
"Who round the hearth-stone used to close 

After the evening prayer ; 
And speak of what these pages said, 

In tones my heart would thrill ; 
Though they are with the silent dead, 

Here are they living still. 

3. My father read this holy book 

To brothers, sisters, dear : 
How calm was my dear mother's look, 

Who loved God's word to hear. 
Her aged face — I see it yet, 

As thronging memories cornel 
Again that little group is met 

"Within the halls at home ! 

4. Thou truest friend man ever knew, 

Thy constancy I've tried ; 
"When all were false I found thee true, 

My counselor and guide. 
The mines of earth no treasure give 

That could this volume buy : 
In teaching me the way to live, 

It taught me how to die. 



The Old Arm Chair. 

Eliza OooTc. 

1. I love it ! I love it ! and who shall dare 
To chide me for loving that old arm chair ? 
I've treasured it long as a sainted prize, 
I've bedewed it with tears and embalmed it with sighs; 
'Tis bound by a thousand bands to my heart, 
Not a tie will break, not a link will start ; 
"Would you know the spell ? a mother sat there ; 
And a sacred thing is that old arm chair. 



PATHETIC STYLE. 215 

In childhood's hour I lingered near 

That hallowed seat with a listening ear, 

To the gentle words that mother could give, 

To fit me to die and teach me to live ; 

She told me shame would never betide, 

With truth for my creed, and God for my guide ; 

She taught me to lisp my earliest prayer 

As I knelt beside that old arm chair, 

I sat and watched her many a day 

"When her eyes grew dim, and her locks were gray, 

And I almost worshiped her when she smiled 

And turned from her Bible to bless her child : 

Tears rolled on, but the last one sped, 

My idol was shattered, my earth-star fled I 

I felt how much the heart can bear, 

When I saw her die in that old arm chair. 

'Tis past ! 'tis past ! but I gaze on it now 

With quivering lip and throbbing brow ; 

'Twas there she nursed me, 'twas there she died, 

And memory still flows with lava tide. 

Say it is folly, and deem me weak, 

As the scalding drops start down my cheek ; 

But I love it ! I love it ! and cannot tear 

My soul from my mother's old arm chair ! 



The Bttrial of Arnold. 

JT. P. Willis. 
Ye've gathered to your place of prayer 

With slow and measured tread : 
Your ranks are full, your mates all there ; 

But the soul of one has fled. 
He was the proudest in his strength, 

The manliest of ye all ; 
Why lies he at that fearful length, 

And ye around his pall ? 

Ye reckon it in days since he 
Strode up that foot- worn aisle, 

With his dark eye flashing gloriously, 
And his lip wreathed with a smile. 



216 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

had it been but told you then 
To mark whose lamp was dim, 

From out yon rank of fresh-lipped men, 
Would ye have singled him ? 



3. Whose was the sinewy arm which flung 

Defiance to the ring ? 
Whose laugh of victory loudest rung, 

Yet not for glorying ? 
Whose heart, in generous deed and thought, 

No rivalry might brook, 
And yet distinction claiming not ? 

There lies he — go and look ! 



On now, his requiem is done, 

The last deep prayer is said ; 
On to his burial, comrades, on, 

With the noblest of the dead. 
Slow, for it presses heavily ; 

It is a man ye bear ! 
Slow, for our thoughts dwell wearily 

On the noble sleeper there. 

Tread lightly, comrades, ye have laid 

His dark locks on his brow ; 
Like life, save deeper light and shade, 

We'll not disturb them now. 
Tread lightly, for 'tis beautiful, 

That blue-veined eyelid's sleep, 
Hiding the eye death left so dull, 

Its slumber we will keep. 

Best now, his journeying is done, 

Your feet are on his sod ; 
Death's chain is on your champion, 

He waiteth here his G-od. 
Ay, turn and weep, 'tis manliness 

To be heart-broken here, 
For the grave of earth's best nobleness 

Is watered bv the tear. 



PATHETIC STYLE. 217 

The Last Footfall. 

Anonymous. 

There is often sadness in the tone, 

And a moisture in the eye, 
And a trembling sorrow in the voice, 

When we bid a last good-by. 
But sadder far than this, I ween, 

sadder far than all ! 
Is the heart-throb with which we strain 

To catch the last footfall. 



2. The last press of a loving hand 

"Will cause a thrill of pain 
When we think, " should it prove that we 

Shall never meet again." 
And as lingeringly the hands unclasp, 

The hot, quick drops will fall ; 
But bitterer are the tears we shed, 

When we hear the last footfall. 



We never felt how dear to us 

Was the sound we loved full well, 
We never knew how musical, 

Till its last echo fell : 
And till we heard it pass away 

Ear, far beyond recall, 
We never thought what grief 'twould be 

To hear the last footfall ! 



4. And years and days that long are passed, 

And the scenes that seemed forgot, 
Bush through the mind like meteor-light 

As we linger on the spot ; 
And little things that were as nought, 

But now will be our all, 
Come to us like an echo low 

Of the last, the last footfall. 



218 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Annabel Lee. 

Edgar Allan Poe. 

1. It was many, full many a year ago, 

In a kingdom by the sea, 
That a maiden lived, whom you may know 

By the name of Annabel Lee ; 
And this maiden lived with no other thought 

Than to love and be loved by me. 

2. I was a child, and she was a child, 

In this kingdom by the sea; 
But we loved with a love that was more than love, 

I and my Annabel Lee: 
With a love the winged seraphs of heaven 

Coveted her and me. 

3. And this was the reason that long ago, 

In this kingdom by the sea, 
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling 

My beautiful Annabel Lee : 
So that her highborn kinsman came 

And bore her away from me, 
To shut her up in a sepulcher, 

In this kingdom by the sea. 

4. The angels not half so happy in heaven, 

Went envying her and me ; 
Yes, that was the reason, as all men know, 

In this kingdom by the sea, 
That the wind came out of the cloud by night, 

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. 

5. But our love was stronger by far than the love 

Of those who were older than we — 

Of many far wiser than we ; 
And neither the angels above in heaven, 

Nor the demons down under the sea, 
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. 

6. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee : 
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes 
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee : 



PATHETIC STYLE. 219 

And so all the night tide I lie down by the side 
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, 

In the sepulcher there by the sea, 

In her tomb by the sounding sea. 



The Bridge oe Sighs. 

Thomas Hood. 

1. One more unfortunate, 

Weary of breath, 
Eashly importunate, 
G-one to her death ! 

2. Take her up tenderly, 

Lift her with care ; 

Fashioned so slenderly, 

Young, and so fair. 

3. Look at her garments 
Clinging like cerements ; 

Whilst the wave constantly 
Drips from her clothing. 

Take her up instantly, 
Loving, not loathing. 

4. Touch her not scornfully ; 
Think of her mournfully, 
Gently and humanly, 

Not of the stains of her; 
All that remains of her 
Now is pure womanly. 

5. Make no deep scrutiny 
Into her mutiny 

Eash and undutiful: 
Past all dishonor, 
Death has left on her 

Only the beautiful. 

6. Still, for all slips of hers, 

One of Eve's family; 
Wipe those poor lips of hers, 
Oozing so clammily. 



220 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

T. Loop up her tresses, 

Escaped from the comb, 
Her fair auburn tresses ; 
Whilst wonderment guesses 
Where was her home ? 

8. Who was her father ? 

Who was her mother ? 
Had she a sister ? 

Had she a brother ? 
Or was there a dearer one 
Still, and a nearer one 

Yet, than all others ? 

9. Alas ! for the rarity 
Of Christian charity 

Under the sun 1 
it was pitiful ! 
Near a whole city full, 

Home she had none. 

10. Sisterly, brotherly, 
Fatherly, motherly, 

Feelings had changed ; 
Love, by harsh evidence, 
Thrown from its eminence ; 
Even God's providence 

Seeming estranged. 

11. Where the lamps quiver 
So far in the river, 

With many a light 
From window and casement, 
From garret to basement, 
She stood with amazement, 

Houseless by night. 

12. The bleak wind of March 

Made her tremble and shiver; 
But not the dark arch, 

Or the black flowing river: 
Mad from life's history, 
Glad to death's mystery, 

Swift to be hurled — 
Anywhere, anywhere 

Out of the world ! 






PATHETIC STYLE. 221 

13. In she plunged boldly, 
No matter how coldly 

The rough river ran ; 
Over the brink of it, 
Picture it, think of it, 

Dissolute man ! 

14. Take her up tenderly, 

Lift her with care ; 

Fashioned so slenderly, 

Young, and so fair. 

15. Ere her limbs frigidly, 
Stiffen too rigidly, 

Decently, kindly, 
Smooth and compose them, 
And her eyes, close them, 

Staring so blindly ; 
Dreadfully staring 

Through muddy impurity, 
As when with the daring, 
Last look of despairing 

Fixed on futurity. 

16. Perishing gloomily, 
Spurred by contumely, 
Burning insanity 

Into the rest ; 
Cross her hands humbly, 
As if praying dumbly, 

Over her breast. 

IT. Owning her weakness, 
Her ill behavior, 
And leaving, with meekness, 
Her sins to her Saviour. 



The Grave of the Beloved. 

Washington Irving. 
1. The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we 
refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal, every 
other affliction to forget, but this wound we consider our duty to keep 



222 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

open ; this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude. Where 
is the mother that would willingly forget the infant that perished like 
a blossom from her arms, though every recollection is a pang? 
Where is the child that would willingly forget the most tender of 
parents, though to remember be but to lament ? Who, even in the 
hour of agony, would forget the friend over whom he mourns ? Who, 
even when the tomb is closing upon the remains of her he most loved, 
aud he feels his heart, as it were, crushed in the closing of its portal, 
would accept consolation that was to be bought by forgetfulness ? 
No, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes 
of the soul. If it has its woes it has likewise its delights, and when 
the overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into the gentle tear of rec- 
ollection, when the sudden anguish and the convulsive agony over 
the present ruins of all that we most loved is softened away into 
pensive meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness, 
who would root out such a sorrow from the heart ? Though it may 
sometimes throw a passing cloud even over the bright hour of gayety, 
or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom, yet who would 
exchange it even for the song of pleasure or the burst of revelry ? 
No, there is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song ; there is a 
recollection of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of 
the living. the grave ! the grave ! It buries every error, covers 
every defect, extinguishes every resentment. From its peaceful bosom 
spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can look 
down upon the grave even of an enemy and not feel a compunctious 
throb that even he should have warred with the poor handful of earth 
that lies moldering before him ! 

2. The grave of those we loved — what a place for meditation ! 
There it is that we call up in long review the whole history of virtue 
and gentleness, and ,the thousand endearments lavished upon us 
almost unheeded in the daily intercourse of intimacy ; there it is that 
we dwell upon the tenderness, the solemn, awful tenderness of the 
parting scene ; the bed of death with all its stifled griefs ; its noise- 
less attendants ; its mute, watchful assiduities ; the last testimonies 
of expiring love; the feeble, faltering, thrilling (0 how thrilling!) 
pressure of the hand ; the last fond look of the glazing eye turning 
upon us even from the threshold of existence; the faint, faltering 
accents struggling in death to give one more assurance of affection! 
Ay, go to the grave of buried love and meditate I There settle the ac- 
count with thy conscience for every past benefit unrequited, every 
past endearment unregarded of that being who can never, never, 
never return to be soothed by thy contrition I 



PATHETIC STYLE. 223 

3. If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul, or 
a furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent ; if thou art a 
husband, and hast ever caused the fond bosom that ventured its 
whole happiness in thy arms to doubt one moment of thy kindness or 
thy truth ; if thou art a friend, and hast ever wronged in thought, 
word, or deed, the spirit that generously confided in thee ; if thou art 
a lover, and hast ever given one unmerited pang to that true heart 
that now lies cold and still beneath thy feet; then be sure that every 
unkind look, every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come 
thronging back upon thy memory and knocking dolefully at thy soul ; 
then be sure that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repentant on the 
grave, and utter the unheard groan and pour the unavailing tear ; 
more deep, more bitter, because unheard and unavailing. 

4. Then weave thy chaplet of flowers and strew the beauties of 
nature about the grave ; console thy broken spirit if thou canst with 
these tender yet futile tributes of regret, but take warning by the 
bitterness of this thy contrite affliction over the dead, and be more 
faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living. 



224 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER III. 

SERIOUS STYLE. 

The Serious Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
that form of thought which, in a quiet and tranquil 
manner, is designed to lead out the mind in a solemn 
strain. 

Nearer Home. 

Phebe Cary. 

1. One sweetly solemn thought 

Comes to me o'er and o'er ; 
I'm nearer my home to-day 
Than I ever have been before. 

2. Nearer my Father's house, 

"Where the many mansions be ; 
Nearer the great white throne, 
Nearer the crystal sea ; 

3. Nearer the bound of life, 

"Where we lay our burdens down ; 
Nearer leaving the cross, 
Nearer gaining the crown. 

4. But the waves of that silent sea 

Roll dark before my sight, 

That brightly the other side 

Break on a shore of light. 

5. 0, if my mortal feet 

Have almost gained the brink, 
If it be I am nearer home 
Even to-day than I think, 

6. Father, perfect my trust, 

Let my spirit feel in death 
That her feet are firmly set 
On the Rock of a living faith. 



SEKIOUS STYLE. 225 

The Heavenly Canaan. 

Watte, 

1. There is a land of pure delight, 

Where saints immortal reign ; 
Eternal day excludes the night, 
And pleasures banish pain. 

2. There everlasting spring abides, 

And never-fading flowers ; 
Death, like a narrow sea, divides 
This heavenly land from ours. 

3. Sweet fields, beyond the swelling flood, 

Stand dressed in living green : 

So to the Jews fair Canaan stood, 

"While Jordan rolled between. 

4. But timorous mortals start and shrink, 

To cross this narrow sea; 
And linger, trembling, on the brink, 
And fear to launch away. 

5. ! could we make our doubts remove, 

Those gloomy doubts that rise, 
And see the Canaan that we love 
With unbeclouded eyes, 

6. Could we but climb where Moses stood 

And view the landscape o'er. 
Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, 
Should fright us from the shore. 



In the Other World. 

R. Beecher Stowe. 

1. It lies around us like a cloud, 

A world we do not see ; 
Yet the sweet closing of an eye 
May bring us there to be. 

2. Its gentle breezes fan our cheek ; 

Amid our worldly cares 
Its gentle voices whisper love, 
And mingle with our prayers. 
15 



226 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



3. Sweet hearts around us throb and beat, 

Sweet helping hands are stirred, 
And palpitates the vail between 
With breathings almost heard. 

4. The silence — awful, sweet, and calm — 

They have no power to break ; 
For mortal words are not for them 
To utter or partake. 

5. So thin, so soft, so sweet they glide, 

So near to press they seem, 
They seem to lull us to our rest, 
And melt into our dream. 

6. And in the hush of rest they bring, 
** 'Tis easy now to see 

How lovely, and how sweet a pass 
The hour of death may be. 

T. To close the eye, and close the ear 
Wrapped in a trance of bliss, 
And gently dream in loving arms — 
To swoon to that — from this. 



8. Scarce knowing if we wake or sleep, 

Scarce asking where we are, 
To feel all evil sink away, 
All sorrow and all care. 

9. Sweet souls around us ! watch us still, 

Press nearer to our side ; 
Into our thoughts, into our prayers, 
With gentle helpings glide. 



10. Let death between us be as naught, 
A dried and vanished stream — 
Your joy be the reality, 
Our suffering life the dream. 



SEKIOUS STYLE. 227 

If We Knew. 

Anonymous. 

1. If we knew the woe and heartache 

"Waiting for us down the road, 
If our lips could taste the wormwood, 

If our backs could feel the load ; 
Would we waste the day in wishing 

For a time that ne'er can be ? 
Would we wait with such impatience 

For our ships to come from sea ? 

2. If we knew the baby fingers, 

Pressed against the window pane, 
Would be cold and stiff to-morrow, 

Never trouble us again; 
Would the bright eyes of our darling 

Catch the frown upon our brow? 
Would the print of rosy fingers 

Vex us then as they do now ? 

3. Ah, these little ice-cold fingers ! 

How they point our memories back 
To the hasty words and actions 

Strewn along our backward track ! 
How these little hands remind us, 

As in snowy grace they lie, 
Not to scatter thorns, but roses, 

For our reaping by and by. 

4. Strange we never prize the music 

Till the sweet- voiced bird has flown ; 
Strange that we should slight the violets 

Till the lovely flowers are gone ; 
Strange that summer skies and sunshine 

Never seem one-half so fair 
As when winter's snowy pinions 

Shake their white down in the air. 

5. Lips from which the seal of silence 

None but G-od can roll away, 

Never blossomed in such beauty 

As adorns the mouth to-day ; 



228 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



And sweet words that freight our memory 

"With their beautiful perfume, 
Come to us in sweeter accents 

Through the portals of the tomb. 

Let us gather up the sunbeams, 

Lying all around our path ; 
Let us keep the wheat and roses, 

Casting out the thorns and chaff; 
Let us find our sweetest comfort 

In the blessings of to-day ; 
With the patient hand removing 

All the briers from our way. 



Forty Years Ago. 

1. I've wandered to the village, Tom, 

I've sat beneath the tree, . 
Upon the school-house play-ground, 

That sheltered you and me ; 
But none were left to greet me, Tom, 

And few were left to know, 
Who played with us upon that green 

Just forty years ago. 

2. The grass was just as green, Tom, 

Barefooted boys at play 
Were sporting, just as we did then, 

With spirits just as gay. 
But the master sleeps upon the hill, 

Which, coated o'er with snow, 
Afforded us a sliding-place 

Some forty years ago. 



3. The old school-house is altered 
The benches are replaced 
By new ones, very like the same 

Our jack-knives had defaced ; 
But the same old bricks are in the waD, 

And the bell swings to and fro, 
Its music's just the same, dear Tom, 
. 'Twas forty years ago. 



SERIOUS STYLE. 229 

4. The boys were playing some old game 

Beneath that same old tree ; 
I do forget the name just now — 

You've played the same with me 
On that same spot ; 'twas played with knives, 

By throwing so and so ; 
The loser had a task to do 

There forty years ago. 

5. The river's running just as still ; 

The willows on its side 
Are larger than they were, Tom ; 

The stream appears less wide ; 
But the grape-vine swing is missed now, 

"Where once we played the beau, 
And swung our sweethearts — pretty girls — 

Just forty years ago. 

6. The spring that bubbled 'neath the hill, 

Close by the spreading beech, 
Is very low ; 'twas once so high 

That we could scarcely reach ; 
And kneeling down to take a drink, 

Dear Tom, I started so, 
To think how very much I've changed 

Since forty years ago. 

7. Near by that spring, upon an elm, 

You know I cut your name, 
Your sweetheart's just beneath it, Tom, 

And you did mine the same. 
Some heartless wretch has peeled the bark ; 

'Twas dying sure, but slow, 
Just as she died whose name you cut 

There forty years ago. 



8. My lids have long been dry, Tom, 
But tears came in my eyes ; 
I thought of her I loved so well, 
Those early broken ties. 



230 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

I visited the old church-yard, 
And took some flowers to strow 

Upon the graves of those we loved 
Just forty years ago. 

9. Some are in the church-yard laid, 

Some sleep beneath the sea; 
But none are left of our old class 

Excepting you and me. 
And when our time shall come, Tom, 

And we are called to go, 
I hope we'll meet with those we loved 

Some forty years ago. 



The Mountains of Life. 

J. G. Clark. 

1. There's a land far away, 'mid the stars, we are told, 

"Where they know not the sorrows of time ; 
"Where the pure waters wander through valleys of gold, 

And life is a treasure sublime : 
'Tis the land of our God, 'tis the home of the soul, 
"Where the ages of splendor eternally roll, 
"Where the way- weary traveler reaches his goal, 

On the ever-green Mountains of Life. 

2. Our gaze cannot soar to that beautiful land, 

But our visions have told of its bliss, 
And our souls by the gale of its gardens are fanned 

"When we faint in the desert of this ; 
And we sometimes have longed for its holy repose, 
"When our spirits were torn with temptations and woes, 
And we've drank from the tide of the river that flows 

Prom the ever-green Mountains of Life. 

3. the stars never tread the blue heavens at night 

But we think where the ransomed have trod, 
And the day never smiles from his palace of light 

But we feel the bright smile of our God. 
"We are traveling homeward through changes and gloom, 
To a kingdom where pleasures unceasingly bloom, 
And our guide is the glory that shines through the tomb, 

From the ever-green Mountains of Life. 



SERIOUS STYLE. 231 

The Isle of Long Ago. 

B. F. Taylor. 

1. a wonderful stream is the river Time, 

As it runs through the realm of tears, 
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme, 
And a boundless sweep and a surge sublime, 

As it bends with the Ocean of Tears. 

2. How the winters are drifting, like flakes of snow, 

And the summers like buds between, 
And the year in the sheaf, so they come and they go, 
On the river's breast, with its ebb and flow, 

As it glides in the shadow and sheen. 

3. There's a magical isle up the river Time, 

Where the softest of airs are playing ; 
There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime, 
And a song as sweet as a vesper chime, 

And the Junes with the roses are staying. 

4. And the name of that Isle is the Long Ago, 

And we bury our treasures there ; 
There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow; 
There are heaps of dust — but we loved them so ! 

There are trinkets and tresses of hair ; 

5. There are fragments of song that nobody sings, 

And a part of an infant's prayer ; 
There's a lute unswept, and a harp without strings ; 
There are broken vows and pieces of rings, 

And the garments that she used to wear. 

6. There are hands that are waved when the fairy shore 

By the mirage is lifted in air, 
And we sometimes hear through the turbulent roar 
Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before, 

When the wind down the river is fair. 

7. remembered for aye, be the blessed Isle, 

All the day of our life till night ; 
When the evening comes with its beautiful smile, 
And our eyes are closing to slumber awhile, 

May that "Greenwood" of Soul be in sight I 



232 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

God the True Source of Consolation. 

Thomas Moore. 

1. Thou who driest the mourner's tear, 

How dark this world would be, 
If, when deceived and wounded here, 
"We could not fly to thee ! 

2. The friends who in our sunshine live 

When winter comes are flown, 

And he who has but tears to give 

Must weep those tears alone. 

3. But Thou wilt heal the broken heart, 

Which, like the plants that throw 
Their fragrance from the wounded part, 
Breathes sweetness out of woe, 

4. When joy no longer soothes or cheers, 

And e'en the hope that threw 

A moment's sparkle o'er our tears, 

Is dimmed and vanished too. 

5. who could bear life's stormy doom 1 

Did not thy wing of love 
Come brightly wafting through the gloom 
Our peace-branch from above ! 

6. Then sorrow touched by thee grows bright 

With more than rapture's ray, 
As darkness shows us worlds of light 
We never saw by day. 



Gratitude. 



1. When all thy mercies, my God, 
My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view, I'm lost 
In wonder, love and praise. 



SERIOUS STYLE. 233 

2. Unnumbered comforts to my soul 

Thy tender care bestowed, 
Before my infant heart conceived 
From whom those comforts flowed. 

3. "When in the slippery paths of youth 

With heedless steps I ran, 
Thine arm, unseen, conveyed me safe, 
And led me up to man. 

4. Ten thousand thousand precious gifts 

My daily thanks employ ; 
Nor is the least a cheerful heart, 
That tastes those gifts with joy. 

5. Through every period of my life, 

Thy goodness I'll pursue; 
And after death, in distant worlds, 
The glorious theme renew. 

6. Through all eternity, to thee 

A joyful song I'll raise : 

But ! eternity's too short 

To utter all thy praise I 



Over the River. 

Miss Priest. 



1. Over the river they beckon to me ; 

Loved ones, who have passed to the further side ; 
The gleam of their snowy robes I see — 

But their voices are lost in the dashing tide. 
There was one with ringlets of sunny gold, 

And eyes the reflection of heaven's own blue ; 
He passed in the twilight gray and cold, 

And the pale mist hid him from mortal view. 
"We saw not the angels who met him there, 

The gates of the city we could not see — 
Over the river, over the river, 

My brother stands waiting to welcome me. 



234 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

2. Over the river the boatman pale 

Carried another, our household pet ; 
Her brown curls waved in the gentle gale, 

Darling Minnie ! I see her yet. 
She crossed on her bosom her dimpled kands, 

And fearlessly entered the phantom bark ; 
We felt it glide from the silver sands, 

And all our sunshine grew strangely dark. 
"We know she is safe on the further side, 

Where all the angels and ransomed be — 
Over the river, the mystic river, 

Our household pet is waiting for me. 

3. For none return from those quiet shores 

Who pass with the boatman cold and pale ; 
We hear the dip of their golden oars, 

We catch a glimpse of their snowy sail ; 
And lo 1 they have passed from our yearning heart, 

They have crossed the stream, and are gone for aye- 
We may not sunder the vail apart, 

That hides from our vision the gates of day. 
We only know that their barks no more 

Will glide with us o'er life's stormy sea ; 
But somewhere, I know, on that unseen shore, 

They watch and beckon and wait for me. 

4. And I sit and think, when the sunset's gold 

Is flushing river and hill and shore, 
I shall one day stand by the water cold 

And list to the sound of the boatman's oar. 
I shall catch a gleam of the snowy sail, 

I shall hear the boat as it nears the strand, 
I shall pass with the boatman cold and pale 

To the better shore of the spirit-land. 
I shall know the loved who have gone before, 

And joyfully sweet wijl the meeting be — 
When over the river, the peaceful river, 

The angel of Death shall carry me. 



TRANQUIL STYLE. 235 



CHAPTER IV. 

TRANQUIL STYLE. 

The Tranquil Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
quiet, calm thought. 

Rain on the Rooe. 

Coates Kinney. 

1. When the humid showers gather over all the starry spheres, 
And the melancholy darkness gently weeps in rainy tears, 
'Tis a joy to press the pillow of a cottage chamber bed, 
And listen to the patter of the soft rain overhead. 

2. Every tinkle on the shingles has an echo in the heart, 
And a thousand dreary fancies into busy being start ; 

And a thousand recollections weave their bright hues into woof, 
As I listen to the patter of the soft rain on the roof. 

3. There in fancy comes my mother, as she used to years agone, 
To survey the infant sleepers ere she left them till the dawn. 
I can see her bending o'er me, as I listen to the strain 
"Which is played upon the shingles by the patter of the rain. 

4. Then my little seraph sister, with her wings and waving hair, 
And her bright-eyed cherub brother — a serene, angelic pair — 
Glide around my wakeful pillow with their praise or mild reproof, 
As I listen to the murmur of the soft rain on the roof. 

6. And another comes to thrill me with her eyes' delicious blue, 
I forget, as gazing on her, that her heart was all untrue ; 
I remember that I loved her as I ne'er may love again, 
And my heart's quick pulses vibrate to the patter of the rain. 

6. There is naught in art's bravuras that can work with such a spell, 
In the spirit's pure, deep fountains, whence the holy passions swell, 
As that melody of nature — that subdued, subduing strain 
Which is played upon the shingles by the patter of the rain ! 



236 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Night. 



How beautiful this night ! The balmiest sigh, 

Which vernal zephyrs breathe in evening's ear, 

Were discord to the speaking quietude 

That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault, 

Studded with stars unutterably bright, 

Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, 

Seems like a canopy which love has spread 

To curtain her sleeping world. Ton gentle hills, 

Robed in a garment of untrodden snow ; 

Yon darksome rocks, whence icicles depend — 

So stainless, that their white and glittering spires 

Tinge not the moon's pure beam ; yon castled steep, 

Whose banner hangeth o'er the time-worn tower 

So idly, that rapt fancy deemeth it 

A metaphor of peace ; all form a scene 

Where musing solitude might love to lift 

Her soul above this sphere of earthliness ; 

Where silence, undisturbed, might watch alone, 

So cold, so bright, so still. 



The Light-House. 

Moore. 

1. The scene was more beautiful far to my eye 

Than if day in its pride had arrayed it : 
The land-breeze blew mild, and the azure-arched sky 

Looked pure as the Spirit that made it: 
The murmur rose soft, as I silently gazed 

On the shadowy waves' playful motion, 
Prom the dim distant hill, till the light-house fire blaeed 

Like a star in the midst of the ocean. 

2. No longer the joy of the sailor-boy's breast 

Was heard in his wildly-breathed numbers ; 
The sea-bird had flown to her wave-girdled nest, 

The fisherman sunk to his slumbers : 
One moment I looked from the hill's gentle slope, 

All hushed was the billows' commotion, 
And o'er them the light-house looked lovely as hope, 

That star of life's tremulous ocean. 



TRANQUIL STYLE. 237 

3. The time is long past, and the scene is afar, 

Yet, when my head rests on its pillow, 
"Will memory sometimes rekindle the star 

That blazed on the breast of the billow : 
In life's closing hour, when the trembling soul flies, 

'And death stills the heart's last emotion, 
then may the seraph of mercy arise, 

Like a star on eternity's ocean ! 



Musixgs. 

Amelia. 

1. I wandered out one summer-night, 

'Twas when my years were few, 
The wind was singing in the light, 

And I was singing too ; 
The sunshine lay upon the hill, 

The shadow in the vale, 
And here and there a leaping rill 

Was laughing on the gale. 

2. One fleecy cloud upon the air 

Was all that met my eyes ; 
It floated like an angel there 

Between me and the skies ; 
I clapped my hands and warbled wild 

As here and there I flew, 
For I was but a careless child, 

And did as children do. 

3. The waves came dancing o'er the sea 

In bright and glittering bands, 
Like little children, wild with glee, 

They linked their dimpled hands — 
They linked their hands, but ere I caught 

Their sprinkled drops of dew, 
They kissed my feet, and, quick as thought, 

Away the ripples flew. 

4. The twilight hours, like birds, flew by, 

As lightly and as free ; 
Ten thousand stars were in the sky, 
Ten thousand on the sea : 



238 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

For every wave with dimpled face, 

That leaped upon the air, 
Had caught a star in its embrace, 

And held it trembling there. 

5. The young moon, too, with upturned sides, 

Her mirrored beauty gave, 
And, as a bark at anchor rides, 

She rode upon the wave ; 
The sea was like the heaven above, 

As perfect and as whole, 
Save that it seemed to thrill with love 

As thrills th' immortal soul. 

6. The leaves, by spirit-voices stirred, 

Made murmurs on the air, 
Low murmurs, that my spirit heard 

And answered with a prayer ; ' 
For 'twas upon that dewy sod, 

Beside the moaning seas, 
I learned at first to worship G-od, 

And sing such strains as these. 

•7. The flowers, all folded to their dreams, 

"Were bowed in slumber free, 
By breezy hills and murmuring streams, 

Where'er they chanced to be ; 
No guilty tears had they to weep, 

No sins to be forgiven ; 
They closed their leaves and went to sleep 

'Neath the blue eye of heaven. 

8. No costly robes upon them shone, 

No jewels from the seas, 
Yet Solomon upon his throne, 

"Was ne'er arrayed like these ; 
And just as free from guilt and art 

Were lovely human flowers, 
Ere sorrow set her bleeding heart 

On this fair world of ours. 

9. I heard the laughing wind behind 

A-playing with my hair ; 
The breezy fingers of the wind — 
How cool and moist they were ! 



TRANQUIL STYLE. 239 

I heard the night-bird warbling o'er 

Its soft enchanting strain ; 
I never heard such sounds before, 

And never shall again. 

10. Then wherefore weave such strains as these, 

And sing them day by day, 
"When every bird upon the breeze 

Can sing a sweeter lay ? 
I'd give the world for their sweet art, 

The simple, the divine; 
I'd give the world to melt one heart 

As they have melted mine. 



The Rainbow. 

Amelia. 

1. I sometimes have thoughts in my loneliest hours, 
That he on my heart like the dew on the flowers, 
Of a ramble I took one bright afternoon, 

When my heart was as light as a blossom in June ; 
The green earth was moist with the late fallen showers, 
The breeze fluttered down and blew open the flowers, 
While a single white cloud, to its haven of rest, 
On the white wing of peace, floated off in the west. 

2. As I threw back my tresses to catch the cool breeze, 
That scattered the rain-drops and dimpled the seas, 
Far up the blue sky a fair rainbow unrolled 

Its soft-tinted pinions of purple and gold. 
'Twas born in a moment, yet, quick as its birth, 
It had reached the uttermost ends of the earth, 
And, fair as an angel, it floated as free, 
With a wing on the earth and a wing on the sea. 

3. How calm was the ocean ! how gentle its swell 1 
Like a woman's soft bosom, it rose and it fell, 

While its light sparkling waves, stealing laughingly o'er, 
When they saw the fair rainbow, knelt down on the shore. 
No sweet hymn ascended, no murmur of prayer, 
Yet I felt that the spirit of worship was there, 
And bent my young head in devotion and love, 
'Neath the form of the angel that floated above. 



240 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

4. How wide was the sweep of its beautiful wings I 
How boundless its circle ! how radiant its rings ! 
If I looked on the sky, 'twas suspended in air ; 
If I looked on the ocean, the rainbow was there ; 
Thus forming a girdle as brilliant and whole 

As the thoughts of the rainbow that circled my soul. 
Like the wing of the Deity, calmly unfurled, 
It bent from the cloud and encircled the world. 

5. There are moments, I think, when the spirit receives 
Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves, 
"When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose, 
Like the innermost leaves from the heart of a rose. 
And thus, when the rainbow had passed from the sky, 
The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by; 

It left my full soul, like the wing of a dove, 

All fluttering with pleasure, and fluttering with love. 

6. I know that each moment of rapture or pain 
But shortens the links of life's mystical chain ; 

I know that my form, like that bow from the wave, 
Must pass from the earth and lie cold in the grave ; 
Tet ! when death's shadows my bosom encloud, 
"When I shrink at the thought of the coffin and shroud, 
May Hope, like the rainbow, my spirit enfold 
In her beautiful pinions of purple and gold. 



GRAVE STYLE. 241 



CHAPTER V. 

GRAVE STYLE. 

The Grave Style is appropriate for the delivery of solemn 
and serious thought of a didactic character. Doctrinal 
and practical sermons come largely under this style. 

The Inspiration of the Bible. 

Edward Winthrop. 

1. Such is the intrinsic excellence of Christianity that it is adapted 
to the wants of all, and it provides for all, not only by its precepts 
and by its doctrines, but also by its evidence. 

2. The poor man may know nothing of history, or science, or phi- 
losophy ; he may have read scarcely any book but the Bible ; he may 
be totally unable to vanquish the skeptic in the arena of public de- 
bate; but he is, nevertheless, surrounded by a panoply which the 
shafts of infidelity can never pierce. 

3. You may go to the home of the poor cottager, whose heart is 
deeply imbued with the spirit of vital Christianity ; you may see him 
gather his little family around him. He expounds to Jhem the whole- 
some doctrines and principles of the Bible, and if they want to know 
the evidence upon which he rests his faith of the divine origin of his 
religion, he can tell them upon reading the book which teaches Chris- 
tianity he finds not only a perfectly true description of his own 
natural character, but in the provisions of this religion a perfect 
adaptation to all his needs. 

4. It is a religion by which to live, a religion by which to die ; a 
religion which cheers in darkness, relieves in perplexity, supports in 
adversity, keeps steadfast in prosperity, and guides the inquirer to 
that blessed land where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the 
weary are at rest." 

5. We entreat you, therefore, to give the Bible a welcome, a cordial 
reception ; obey its precepts, trust its promises, and rely implicitly 
upon that Divine Redeemer whose religion brings glory to G-od in the 
highest, and on earth, peace and good will to men. 

6. Thus will you fulfill the noble end of your existence, and the 
great God of the universe will be your father and your friend ; and 
when the last mighty convulsion shall shake the earth and the sea 

16 



242 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

and the sky, and the fragments of a thousand barks, richly freighted 
with intellect and learning, are scattered on the shores of error and 
delusion, your vessel shall in safety outride the storm, and enter in 
triumph the haven of eternal rest. 



Goodness of God. 



1. The light of nature, the works of creation, the general consent of 
nations, in harmony with divine revelation, attest the being, the perfec- 
tions and the providence of Gk>d. Whatever cause we have to lament 
the frequent inconsistency of human conduct with this belief, yet an 
avowed atheist is a monster that rarely makes his appearance. God's 
government of the affairs of the universe, an acknowledgment of his act- 
ive, superintending providence over that portion of it which constitutes 
the globe we inhabit is rejected, at least theoretically, by very few. 

2. That a superior, invisible power is continually employed in man- 
aging and controlling by secret, imperceptible, irresistible means all 
the transactions of the world, is so often manifested in the disappoint- 
ment as well as in the success of our plans, that blind and depraved 
must our minds be to deny what every day's transactions so fully 
prove. The excellence of the divine character, especially in the exer- 
cise of that goodness toward his creatures which is seen in the dis- 
pensation of their daily benefits, and in overruling occurring events, 
to the increase of their happiness, is equally obvious. 

3. Do we desire evidence of these things ? Who is without them 
in the experience of his own life ? Who has not reason to thank God 
for the success which has attended his exertions in the world ? Who 
has not reason to thank him for defeating plans, the accomplishment 
of which it has been afterward seen would have resulted in injury or 
ruin ? Who has not cause to present him the unaffected homage of a 
grateful heart for the consequences of events apparently the most un- 
propitious, and for his unquestionable kindness in the daily supply 
of needful mercies ? 



Access to God. 

James Hamilton. 
1. However early in the morning you seek the gate of access, you 
find it already open ; and the midnight moment when you find yourself 
in the sudden arms of death, the winged prayer can bring an instant 
Saviour near. And this wherever you are. It needs not that you ascend 
some special Pisgah or Moriah. It needs not that you should enter 
some awful shrine, or pull off your shoes on some holy ground. 



GRAVE STYLE. 243 

2. Could a memento be reared on every spot from which an accept- 
able prayer has passed away, and upon which a prompt answer has 
come down, we should find Jehovah-shammah, " the Lord has been 
here," inscribed on many a cottage hearth and many a dungeon floor. 
We should find it not only in Jerusalem's proud temple, and David's 
cedar galleries, but in the fisherman's cottage by the brink of Gennes- 
areth, and in the chamber where Pentecost began. 

3. Whether it be the field where Isaac went to meditate, or the 
rocky knoll where Jacob lay down to sleep, or the brook where Israel 
wrestled, or the den where Daniel gazed on lions and the lions gazed 
on him, on the hill-side where the Man of sorrows prayed all night, 
we should still discern the prints of the ladder's feet let down from 
heaven — the landing-place of mercies, because the starting-point of 
prayer. And all this whatsoever you are. 

4. It needs no saints, no proficient in piety, no adept in eloquent 
language, no dignity of earthly rank. It needs but a blind beggar, a 
loathsome lazar. It needs but a penitent publican or a dying thief. 
And it needs no sharp ordeal, no costly passport, no painful expiation, 
to bring you to the mercy-seat. The Saviour's merit — the name of 
Jesus, priceless as they are, cost the sinner nothing. They are freely 
put at his disposal, and instantly and constantly he ma}- make use 
of them. This access to God in every place, at every moment, with- 
out any price or personal merit, is it not a privilege ? 



Infidelity Tested. 
1. We might ask the patrons of infidelity, what fury impels them 
to attempt the subversion of Christianity? Is it that they have dis- 
covered a better system ? To what virtues are their principles favor- 
able ? Or is there one which Christians have not carried to a higher 
than any of which their party can boast ? Have they discovered a 
more excellent rule of life or a better hope in death, than that which 
the Scriptures suggest? Above all, what are the pretensions on 
which they rest their claims to be the guides of mankind, or which 
embolden them to expect we should trample on the experience of 
ages, and abandon a religion which has been attested by a train of 
miracles and prophecies in which millions of our forefathers have 
found a refuge in every trouble and consolation in the hour of death ; 
a religion which has been adorned with the highest sanctity of char- 
acter and splendor of talents, which enrolls among its disciples the 
names of Bacon, IsTewton, and Locke, the glory of their species, and 
to which these illustrious men were proud to dedicate the last and 
best fruits of their immortal genius. 



244 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

2. If the question at issue is to be decided by argument, nothing 
can be added to the triumph of Christianity; if by an appeal to 
authority, what have our adversaries to oppose to these great names ? 
Where are the infidels of such pure, uncontaminated morals, un- 
shaken probity, and extended benevolence, that we should be in no 
danger of being seduced into impiety by their example ? Into what 
obscure recesses of misery, into what dungeons have their philan- 
thropists penetrated, to lighten the fetters and relieve the sorrows of 
the helpless captive? What barbarous tribes have their apostles vis- 
ited ? What distant climes have they explored, encompassed with cold, 
nakedness and want, to diffuse principles of virtue and the blessings 
of civilization ? Or will they choose to waive their pretensions to this 
extraordinary, and in their eyes eccentric species of benevolence, and 
rest their character on their political exploits; on their efforts to re- 
animate the virtues of a sinking State, to restrain licentiousness, to 
calm the tumult of popular fury; and, by inculcating the spirit of jus- 
tice, moderation and pity for fallen greatness, to mitigate the inevit- 
able horrors of revolution? Our adversaries will, at least, have the 
discretion, if not the modesty, to recede from the test. 

3. More than all, their infatuated eagerness, their parricidal zeal to 
extinguish a sense of Deity, must excite astonishment and horror. 
Is the idea of an almighty and perfect ruler unfriendly to any passion 
which is consistent with innocence, or an obstruction to any design 
which is not shameful to avow ? 

4. Eternal God ! on what are thy enemies intent ? What are those 
enterprises of guilt and horror, that, for the safety of their perform- 
ers, require to be enveloped in a darkness which the eye of Heaven 
must not pierce ? Miserable men ! proud of being the offspring of 
chance; in love with universal disorder; whose happiness is in- 
volved in the belief of there being no witness to their designs, and 
who are at ease only because they suppose themselves inhabitants of 
a forsaken and fatherless world I 



Religion the Only Basis of Society. 

W. K Charming. 
1. Few men suspect, perhaps no man comprehends, the extent of 
the support given by religion to every virtue. No man, perhaps, is 
aware how much our moral and social sentiments are fed from this 
fountain ; how powerless conscience would become without the belief 
of a G-od ; how palsied would be human benevolence were there not 
the sense of a higher benevolence to quicken and sustain it ; how 
suddenly the whole social fabric would quake, and with what a 



GRAVE STYLE. 245 

fearful crash it would sink into hopeless ruin, were the ideas of a 
Supreme Being, of accountableness, and of a future life, to be utterly 
erased from every mind. 

2. And let men thoroughly believe that they are the work, and sport 
of chance; that no superior intelligence concerns itself with human 
affairs ; that all their improvements perish forever at death ; that the 
weak have no guardian, and the injured no avenger; that there is no 
recompense for sacrifices to uprightness and the public good ; that an 
oath is unheard in heaven; that secret crimes have no witness but the 
perpetrator ; that human existence has no purpose, and human virtue 
no unfailing friend; that this brief life is every thing to us, and death 
is total, everlasting extinction ; once let them thoroughly abandon re- 
ligion, and who can conceive or describe the extent of the desolation 
which would follow! 

3. We hope, perhaps, that human laws and natural sympathy would 
hold society together. As reasonably might we believe, that, were 
the sun quenched in the heavens, our torches would illuminate and 
our fires quicken and fertilize the creation. What is there in human 
nature to awaken respect and tenderness if man is the unprotected 
insect of a day ? And what is he more, if atheism be true ? 

4. Erase ail thought and fear of God from a community, and self- 
ishness and sensuality would absorb the whole mam Appetite, 
knowing no restraint, and suffering having no solace or hope, would 
trample in scorn on the restraints of human laws. Virtue, duty, 
principle, would be mocked and spumed as unmeaning sounds. A 
sordid self-interest would supplant every other feeling, and man 
would become, in fact, what the theory of atheism declares him to be 
— a companion for brutes. 



The Promises of Religion to the Young. 

AUson. 

1. In every part of Scripture it is remarkable with what singular 
tenderness the season of youth is always mentioned, and what hopes 
are offered to the devotion of the young. It was at that age that God 
appeared unto Moses when he fed his flock in the desert, and called 
him to the command of his own people. It was at that age he visited 
the infant SamueL while he ministered in the temple of the Lord, " in 
days -when the word of the Lord was precious, and when there was 
no open vision. 1 ' It was at that age that his Spirit fell upon David, 
while he was yet the youngest of his father's sons, and when among 
the mountains of Bethlehem he fed his father's sheep. 

2. It was at that age also that they brought young children unto 



246 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Christ that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those that 
brought them. But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased, and 
said to them, " Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto 
me, for 0/ such is the kingdom of heaven." If these, then, are the 
effects and promises of youth and piety, rejoice, young man, in thy 
youth ! rejoice in those days which are never to return, when religion 
comes to thee in all its charms, and when the God of nature reveals 
himself to thy soul, like the mild radiance of the morning sun when 
he rises amid the blessings of a grateful world. 

3. If already devotion hath taught thee her secret pleasures; if, 
when nature meets thee in all its magnificence or beauty, thy heart 
humbleth itself in adoration before the hand which made it, and re- 
joiceth in the contemplation of the wisdom by which it is maintained ; 
if, when revelation unvails her mercies and the Son of God comes 
forth to give peace and hope to fallen man, thine eye follows with 
astonishment the glories of his path and pours at last over his cross 
those pious tears which it is a delight to shed ; if thy soul accom- 
panieth him in his triumph over the grave, and entereth on the wings 
of faith into that heaven " where he sat down at the right hand of 
the Majesty on High," and seeth the " society of angels and of the 
spirits of just men made perfect," and listeneth to the " everlasting 
song which is sung before the throne ;" if such are the meditations in 
which thy youthful hours are passed, renounce not, for all that life 
can offer thee in exchange, these solitary joys. The world which is 
before thee — the world which thine imagination paints in such bright- 
ness — has no pleasures to bestow which can compare with these ; 
and all that its boasted wisdom can produce has nothing so acceptable 
in the sight of heaven as this pure offering of thy infant soul. 

4. In these days " the Lord himself is thy shepherd, and thou dost 
not want. Amid the green pastures and by the still waters" of 
youth he now makes "thy soul to repose." But the years draw 
nigh when life shall call thee to its trials ; the evil days are on the 
wing when "thou shalt say thou hast no pleasure in them ;" and as 
thy steps advance, "the valley of the shadow of death opens," through 
which thou must pass at last. It is then thou shalt know what it is 
to "remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." In these days 
of trial or of awe "his Spirit shall be with thee," and thou shalt fear 
no ill ; and amid every evil that surrounds thee " he shall restore thy 
soul. His goodness and mercy shall follow thee all the days of thy 
life ;" and when at last " the silver cord is loosed, thy spirit shall 
return to God who gave it, and thou shalt dwell in the house of the 
Lord forever." 



DIDACTIC STYLE. 247 



CHAPTER VI. 

DIDACTIC STYLE. 

The Didactic Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
those forms of thought which are simply designed to 
instruct either in the form of narration, description, or 
scientific and literary lectures. * 

Introductions to speeches and orations generally re- 
quire the Didactic Style. 

Cheerfulness. 

1. There is no one quality that so much attaches man to his fellow- 
man as cheerfulness. Talents may excite more respect, and virtue 
more esteem, but the respect is apt to be distant and the esteem cold. 
It is far otherwise with cheerfulness. It endears a man to the heart, 
not the intellect or the imagination. There is a kind of reciprocal 
diffusiveness about this quality that recommends its possessor by the 
very effect it produces. There is a mellow radiance in the light it 
sheds on all social intercourse which pervades the soul to a depth 
that the blaze of intellect can never reach. 

2. The cheerful man is a double blessing — a blessing to himself and 
to the world around him. In his own character his good nature is 
the clear blue sky of his own heart, on which every star of talent 
shines out more clearly. To others he carries an atmosphere of joy 
and hope and encouragement wherever he moves. His own cheer- 
fulness becomes infectious, and his associates lose their moroseness 
and their gloom in the amber-colored light of the benevolence he casts 
around him. 

3. It is true that cheerfulness is not always happiness. The face 
may glow in smiles while the heart "runs in coldness and darkness 
below," but cheerfulness is the best external indication of happiness 
that we have, and it enjoys this advantage over almost every other 
good quality, that the counterfeit is as valuable to society as the 



248 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

reality. It answers as a medium of public circulation fully as well as 
the .true coin. 

4. A man is worthy of all praise, whatever may be his private 
griefs, who does not intrude them on the happiness of his friends, but 
constantly contributes his quota of cheerfulness to the general public 
enjoyment. " Every heart knows its own bitterness," but let the 
possessor of that heart take heed that he does not distill it into his 
neighbor's cup, and thus poison his felicity. 

5. There is no sight more commendable and more agreeable than a 
man whom we know fortune has dealt with badly smothering his 
peculiar griefs in his own bosom, and doing his duty in society with 
an unruffled brow and a cheerful mien. It is a duty which society 
has a right to demand — a portion of that great chain which binds 
humanity together, the links of which every one should preserve 
bright and unsullied. • 

6. It may be asked, What shall that man do whose burdens of grief 
are heavy, and made still heavier by the tears he has shed over them 
in private ; shall he leave society ? Certainly, until he has learned to 
bear his own burden. Shall he not seek the sympathy of his friends ? 
He had better not. Sympathy would only weaken the masculine 
strength of mind which enables us to endure. Besides, sympathy un- 
sought for is much more readily given, and sinks deeper in its healing 
effects into the heart. No, no, cheerfulness is a duty which every 
man owes. Let him faithfully discharge the debt. 



Be Compkehensive. 

1. Talk to the point, and stop when you reach it. The faculty 
which some possess of making one idea cover a quire of paper is des- 
picable. To fill a volume upon nothing is a credit to nobody, though 
Chesterfield wrote a very clever poem upon nothing. 

2. There are men who get one idea into their heads, and but one, 
and they make the most of it. You can see it and almost feel it in 
their presence. On all occasions it is produced till it is worn as thin 
as charity. They remind you of a twenty-four pounder discharging 
at a humming-bird. You hear a tremendous noise, see a volume of 
smoke, but you look in vain for the effects. The bird is scattered to 
atoms. 

3. Just so with the idea. It is enveloped in a cloud, and lost 
amid the rumbling of words and flourishes. Short letters, sermons, 
speeches and paragraphs are favorites with us. Commend us to the 
young man who wrote to his father, " Dear sir, I am going to get 



DIDACTIC STYLE. 249 

married;" and also to the old gentleman, who replied, "Dear son, go 
ahead." 

4. Such are the men for action. They do more tban they say. 
The half is not told in their cases. They are worth their weight in 
gold for every purpose of life, and are men every- where prized. 



Hamlet's Advice to the Platers. 

Shakspeare. 

• 

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly 
on the tongue ; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had 
as lief the town-crier had spoken my lines. And do not saw the air 
too much with your hands, but use all gently, for in the very torrent, 
tempest, and, as I may say. whirlwind of your passion, you must be- 
get a temperance that will give it smoothness. 

it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fel- 
low tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the 
groundlings, who (for the most part) are capable of nothing but inex- 
plicable dumb shows and noise. Pray you avoid it. 

Be not too tame either, but let your own discretion be your tutor. 
Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special 
observance, that you overstep not the modesty of nature, for any 
thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end is to 
hold, as it were, the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her own 
feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the times 
their form and pressure. 

Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it may make the un- 
skillful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of 
which one must, in your allowance, outweigh a whole theater of 
others. there be players that I have seen play, and heard others 
praise, and that highly — not to speak it profanely — that neither 
having the accent of Christian nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor 
man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Na- 
ture's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imi- 
tated humanity so abominably. 



Industry and Eloquence. 

Wirt. 

1. In the ancient republics of Greece and Rome oratory was a 
necessary branch of a finished education. A much smaller propor- 



250 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

tion of the citizens were educated than among us, but of these a much 
larger number became orators. No man could hope for distinction or 
influence and yet slight this art. The commanders of their armies 
were orators as well as soldiers, and ruled as well by their rhetorical 
as by their military skill. There was no trusting with them, as with 
us, to a natural facility or the acquisition of an accidental fluency by 
occasional practice. 

2. They served an apprenticeship to the art. They passed through 
a regular course of instruction in schools ; they submitted to long and 
laborious discipline; they exercised themselves frequently both before 
equals and in the presence of teaehfrs, who criticised, reproved, re- 
buked, excited emulation, and left nothing undone which art and per- 
severance could accomplish. 

3. The greatest orators of antiquity, so far from being favored by 
natural tendencies, except, indeed, in their high intellectual endow- 
ments, had to struggle against natural obstacles, and, instead of grow- 
ing up spontaneously to their unrivaled eminence, they forced them- 
selves forward by the most discouraging artificial process. 

4. Demosthenes combated an impediment in speech and an ungain- 
liness of gesture which at first drove him from the forum in disgrace. 
Cicero failed at first through weakness of lungs and an excessive ve- 
hemenc eof manner which wearied the hearers and defeated his own 
purpose. These defects were conquered by study and discipline. 
He exiled himself from home, and during his absence in various lands 
passed not a day without a rhetorical exercise, seeking the masters 
who were most severe in criticism as the surest means of leading him 
to the perfection at which he aimed. 

5. Such, too, was the education of their other great men. They 
were all, according to their ability and station, orators ; orators, not 
by nature or accident, but by education, formed in strict process of 
rhetorical training. 

6. The inference to be drawn from these observations is, that if so 
many of those who received an accomplished education became ac- 
complished orators, because to become so was one purpose of their 
study, then it is in the power of a much larger proportion among us 
to form ourselves into creditable and accurate speakers. The infer- 
ence should not be denied until proved false by experiment. 

7. Let this art be made an object of attention ; let young men train 
themselves to it faithfully and long, and if any of competent talents 
and tolerable science be found at last incapable of expressing them- 
selves in continued and connected discourse, so as to answer the ends 
of public speaking, then, and not till then, let it be said that a pecul- 



DIDACTIC STYLE. 251 

iar talent or natural aptitude is requisite, the want of which must 
render effort vain ; then, and not till then, let us acquiesce in this in- 
dolent and timorous notion, which contradicts the whole testimony of 
antiquity and all the experience of the world. 



No Excellence Without Labor. 

Wirt. 

1. The education, moral and intellectual, of every individual must 
be chiefly his own work. Rely upon it that the ancients were right ; 
both in morals and intellect we give their final shape to our own 
characters, and thus become emphatically the architects of our own 
fortunes. How else could it happen that young men who have had 
precisely the same opportunities should be continually presenting us 
with such different results, and rushing to such opposite destinies ? 
Difference of talent will not solve it, because that difference very often 
is in favor of the disappointed candidate. • 

2. You shall see issuing from the walls of the same college, nay, 
sometimes from the bosom of the same family, two young men, of 
whom the one shall be admitted to be a genius of high order, the 
other scarcely above the point of mediocrity ; yet you shall see the 
genius sinking and perishing in poverty, obscurity and wretchedness » 
while, on the other hand, you shall observe the mediocre plodding his 
slow but sure way up the hill of life, gaining steadfast footing at every 
step, and mounting at length to eminence and distinction, an orna- 
ment to his family, a blessing to his country. Now, whose work is 
this ? Manifestly their own. They are the architects of their respect- 
ive fortunes. 

3. The best seminary of learning that can open its portals to you 
can do no more than afford you the opportunity of instruction ; but it 
must depend at last on yourselves whether you will be instructed or 
not, or to what point you will push your instruction. And of this, be 
assured, I speak from observation a certain truth : there is no excel- 
lence without great labor. It is the fia/t of fate, from which no power 
of genius can absolve you. 

4. Genius unexerted is like the poor moth that flutters around a 
candle till it scorches itself to death. If genius be desirable at all it 
is only of that great and magnanimous kind which, like the condor 
of South America, pitches from the summit of Chimborazo above the 
clouds, and sustains itself at pleasure in that empyreal region with an 
energy rather invigorated than weakened by the effort. 



252 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

5. It is this capacity for high and long-continued exertion, this 
vigorous power of profound and searching investigation, this careering 
and wide-spreading comprehension of mind, and those long reaches 
of thought that 

"... pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon, 
Or dive into the bottom of the deep, 
Where fathom line could never touch the ground, 
And drag up drowned honor by the locks." 

This is the prowess and these the hardy achievements which are to 
enroll your names among the great men of the earth. 






Advice to a Young Lawyer. 

Judge Story. 

1. Whene'er you speak, remember every cause 
Stands not on eloquence, but stands on laws ; 
Pregnant in matter, in expression brief, 

Let every sentence stand with bold relief; 
On trifling points nor time nor talents waste, 
A sad offense to learning and to taste ; 
Nor deal with pompous phrase, nor e'er suppose 
Poetic nights belong to reasoning prose. 

2. Loose declamation may deceive the crowd, 
And seem more striking as it grows more loud ; 
But sober sense rejects it with disdain, 

As naught but empty noise, and weak as vain. 

3. The froth of words, the schoolboy's vain parade 
Of books and cases — all his stock in trade — 
The pert conceits, the cunning tricks and play 
Of low attorneys, strung in long array, 

The unseemly jest, the petulant reply, 
That chatters on, and cares not how or why, 
Strictly avoid — unworthy themes to scan, 
They sink the speaker and disgrace the man ; 
Like the false lights by flying shadows cast, 
Scarce seen when present, and forgot when past. 

4. Begin with dignity ; expound with grace 
Each ground of reasoninf in its time and place : 
Let order reign throughout, each topic touch, 
Nor urge its power too little nor too much ; 



DIDACTIC STYLE. 253 

Give each strong thought its most attractive view, 

In diction clear and yet severely true, 

And as the arguments in splendor grow, 

Let each reflect its light on all below ; 

When to the close arrived, make no delays 

By petty flourishes or verbal plays, 

But sum the whole in one deep, solemn strain, 

Like a strong current hastening to the main. 



Modulation. 



1. 'Tis not enough the voice be sound and clear, 
'Tis modulation that must charm the ear. 
That voice all modes of passion can express 
"Which marks the proper word with proper stress : 
But none emphatic can that speaker call 

"Who lays an equal emphasis on all. 
Some o'er the tongue the labored measures roll, 
Slow and deliberate as the parting toll ; 
Point every stop, mark every pause so strong, 
Their words, like stage processions, stalk along. 

2. All affectation but creates disgust, 

And e'en in speaking we may seem too just. 
In vain for them the pleasing measure flows 
Whose recitation runs it all to prose ; 
Bepeating what the poet sets not down, 
The verb disjointing from its favorite noun, 
While pause and break and repetition join 
To make a discord in each tuneful line. 

3. Some placid natures fill the allotted scene 
With lifeless drawls, insipid and serene : 
While others thunder every couplet o'er, 

And almost crack your ears with rant and roar. 
More nature oft, and finer strokes are shown 
In the low whisper than tempestuous tone ; 
And Hamlet's hollow voice and fixed amaze 
More powerful terror%) the mind conveys 
Than he who, swollen with impetuous rage, 
Bullies the bulky phantom of the stage. 



254 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

4. He who in earnest studies o'er his part, 
"Will find true nature cling about his heart. 
The modes of grief are not included all 
In the white handkerchief and mournful drawl ; 
A single look more marks the internal woe 
Than all the windings of the lengthened ! 
Up to the face the quick sensation flies, 
And darts its meaning from the speaking eyes : 
Love, transport, madness, anger, scorn, despair, 
And all the passions, all the soul is there.. 



Don't Run in Debt. 

Eliza Cook. 

1. Don't run in debt — never mind, never mind 

If the clothes are faded and torn; 
Fix 'em up, make 'em do, it is better by far, 

Than to have the heart weary and worn. 
"Who'll love you more for the set of your hat, 

Or your ruff, or the tie of your shoe, 
The style of your vest, or your boots or cravat, 

If they know you're in debt for the new ? 

2. There's no comfort, I tell you, in walking the street 

In fine clothes if you know you're in debt, 
And feel that perchance you some tradesman may meet, 
"Who will sneer, " They're not paid for yet." 

3. Good friends, let me beg of you, don't run in debt 

If the chairs and the sofa are old ; 
They will fit your backs better than any new set, 

Unless they are paid for with gold. 
If the house is too small, draw the closer together; 

Keep it warm with a hearty good- will ; 
A big one unpaid for, in all kinds of weather, 

"Will send to your warm heart a chill. 

4. Don't run in debt — dear girls, take a hint, 

If the fashions have ch^ged since last season, 
Old nature is out in the very same tint, 

And old nature, we think, has some reason. 



DIDACTIC STYLE. 255 

But just say to your friend that you cannot afford 
To spend time to keep up with the fashion ; 

That your purse is too light, and your honor too bright 
To be tarnished with such silly passion. 

5. Gents, don't run in debt — let your friends, if they can, 

Have fine houses, and feathers, and flowers, 
But, unless they are paid for, be more of a man 

Than to envy their sunshiny hours. 
If you've money to spare I have nothing to say — 

Spend your dollars and dimes as you please, 
But mind you, the man who his note has to pay, 

Is the man who is never at ease, 

6. Kind husband, don't run in debt any more ; 

'Twill fill your wife's cup of sorrow 
To know that a neighbor may call at your door 

With a bill you must settle to-morrow. 
take my advice ! it is good ! it is true ! 

(But lest you may some of you doubt it,) 
I'll whisper a secret, now seeing 'tis you : 

I have tried it, and know all about it. 

7. The chain of a debtor is heavy and cold, 

Its links all corrosion and rust ; 
Gild it o'er as you will, it is never of gold ; 
Then spurn it aside with disgust. 



QUEEIES. 

1. Is it any body's business 

If a gentleman should choose 
To wait upon a lady 

If the lady don't refuse ? 
Or, to speak a little plainer, 

That the meaning all may know, 
Is it any body's business 

If a lady has a beau ? 

2. Is it any body's business 

"When that gentleman may call, 
Or when he leaves the lady, 
Or if he leaves at all ? 



256 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Or is it necessary 

That the curtain should be drawn, 
To save from further trouble 

The outside lookers-on ? 

3. Is it any body's business 

But the lady's, if her beau 
Eides out with other ladies, 

And doesn't let her know ? 
Is it any body's business 

But the gentleman's, if she 
Accepts another escort, 

"Where he doesn't chance to be ? 

4. Is a person on the sidewalk, 

Whether great or whether small, 
Is it any body's business 

Where that person means to call? 
Or if you see a person, 

As he's calling anywhere, 
Is it any of your business 

What his business may be there ? 

5. The substance of our query, 

Simply stated, would be this : 
Is it any body's business ' 

What another's business is? 
If it is, or if it isn't, 

We would really like to know ; 
For we're certain, if it isn't, 

There are some who make it so. 



LIVELY STYLE. 257 



CHAPTER VII. 

LIVELY STYLE. 

The Lively Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
animated narration, animated description, animated 
thought of every kind in which the feeling does not 
rise to impassioned emotion. 

The Personality and Uses of a Laugh. 

1. I would be willing to choose my friend by the quality of bis laugh, 
and abide the issue. A glad, gushing outflow — a clear, ringing, mellow 
note of the soul, as surely indicates a geuial and genuine nature as the 
rainbow in the dew-drop heralds the morning sun. or the frail flower 
in the wilderness betrays the zephyr-tossed seed of the parterre. 

2. A laugh is one of God's truths. It tolerates no disguises. 
Falsehood may train its voice to flow in softest cadences, its lips to 
wreathe into smiles of surpassing sweetness, its face 

" to put on 

That look we trust in ;" 

But its laugh will betray the mockery. Who has not startled and 
shuddered at the hollow " he-he-he ! " of some velvet-voiced Mephis- 
topheles, whose sinuous fascinations, without this note of warning, this 
premonitory rattle — might have bound the soul with a strong spell ? 

3. Leave nature alone. If she is noble, her broadest expression 
will soon tone itself down to fine accordance with life's earnestness ; 
if she is base, no silken interweavings can keep out of sight her ugly 
head of discord. If we put a laugh into strait-jacket and leading- 
strings it becomes an abortion ; if we attempt to refine we destroy its 
pure, mellifluent ring ; if we suppress a laugh it struggles and dies on 
the heart, and the place where it lies is apt ever after to be weak and 
vulnerable. No, laugh truly, as you would speak truly, and both the 
inner and the outer man will rejoice. A full, spontaneous outburst 
opens all the delicate valves of being, and glides, a subtle oil, through 
all its complicated mechanism. 

4. Laugh heartily if you would keep the dew of your youth. 
There is no need to lay our eirlhood and boyhood so doggedly down 

17 



258 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

upon the altar of sacrifice as we toil up life's mountain. Dear, inno- 
cent children, lifting their dewy eyes and fair foreheads to the benedic- 
tions of angels, prattling and gamboling because it is a great joy to live, 
should flit like sunbeams among the stern-faced and stalwart. Young 
men and maidens should walk with strong, elastic tread and cheerful 
voices among the weak and uncertain. White hairs should be no more 
the insignia of age, but the crown of ripe and perennial youth. 

5. Laugh for your beauty. The joyous carry a fountain of light in 
their eyes, and round into rosy dimples, where the echoes of gladness 
play at "hide and go seek." Tour "lean and hungry Cassius" is 
never betrayed into a laugh, and his smile is more cadaverous than 
his despair. 

6. Laugh if you would live. He only exists who drags his days 
after him like a massive chain, asking sympathy with uplifted eye- 
brows and weak utterance, as the beggar asks alms. Better die, for 
your own sake and the world's sake, than to pervert the uses and 
graces and dignities of life. 

7. Make your own sunshine and your own music, keep your heart 
open to the smile of the good Father, and brave all things. 

"Care to our coffin adds a nail, no doubt, 
And every grin so merry draws one out" 



Paddle Your Own Canoe. 

Mrs. Sarah T. Bolton. 

1. Yoyager upon life's sea, 

To yourself be true ; 
And where'er your lot may be, 

Paddle your own canoe. 
Never, though the winds may rave, 

Falter nor look back, 
But upon the darkest wave 

Leave a shining track. 

2. Nobly dare the wildest storm, 

Stem the hardest gale ; 
Brave of heart and strong of arm, 

You will never fail. 
When the world is cold and dark, 

Keep an end in view, 
And toward the beacon mark 

Paddle your own canoe. 



LIVELY STYLE. 259 

3. Every wave that bears you on 

To the silent shore, 
Erom its sunny source has gone 

To return no more : 
Then let not an hour's delay 

Cheat you of your due ; 
But while it is called to-day, 

Paddle your own canoe. 

4. If your birth denied you wealth, 

Lofty state and power, 
Honest fame and hardy health 

Are a better dower ; 
But if these will not suffice, 

Golden gain pursue, 
And to win the glittering prize, 

Paddle your own canoe. 

5. "Would you wrest the wealth of fame 

From the hand of fate ; 
Would you write a deathless name, 

With the good and great ; 
Would you bless your fellow-men ? 

Heart and soul imbue 
With the holy task, and then 

Paddle your own canoe. 

6. Would you crush the tyrant wrong 

In the world's fierce fight ? 
With a spirit brave and strong, 

Battle for the right ; 
And to break the chains that bind 

The many to the few — 
To enfranchise slavish mind, 

Paddle your own canoe. 

7. Nothing great is lightly won, 

Nothing won is lost ; 
Every good deed nobly done 

Will repay the cost. 
Leave to Heaven, in humble trust, 

All you will to do ; 
But if you succeed, you must 

Paddle your own canoe. 



260 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

I'm With You Once Again. 

G. P. Morris. 

1. I'm with you once again, my friends ; 

No more my footsteps roam ; 
"Where it began my journey ends, 

Amid the scenes of home. 
No other clime has skies so blue, 

Or streams so broad and clear ; 
And where are hearts so warm and true 

As those that meet me here ? 

2. Since last, with spirits wild and free, 

I pressed my native strand, 
I've wandered many miles at sea, 

And many miles on land: 
I've seen fair regions of the earth 

With rude commotion torn, 
"Which taught me how to prize the worth 

Of that where I was born. 

3. In other countries, when I heard 

The language of my own, 
How fondly each familiar word 

Awoke an answering tone I 
But when our woodland songs were sung 

Upon a foreign mart, 
The vows that faltered on the tongue 

"With rapture filled my heart. 

4. My native land, I turn to you 

With blessing and with prayer, 
Where man is brave and woman true, 

And free as mountain air. 
Long may our flag in triumph wave 

Against the world combined, 
And friends a welcome, foes a grave, 

Within our borders find. 



A Psalm of Life. 

Longfellow. 
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 

Life is but an empty dream I 
Eor the soul is dead that slumbers, 
. And things are not what they seem 



LIVELY STYLE. 261 

2. Life is real ! Life is earnest ! 

And the grave is not its goal : 
" Dust thou art, to dust returnest," 
"Was not written of the soul. 

3. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 

Is our destined end or way, 

But to act, that each to-morrow 

Tind us further than to-day. 

4. Art is long, and time is fleeting, 

And our hearts, though stout and brave, 
Still, like muffled drums, are beating 
Funeral marches to the grave. 

5. In the world's broad field of battle, 

In the bivouac of life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle ; 
Be a hero in the strife. 

6. Trust no future, howe'er pleasant ; 

Let the dead past bury its dead ; 
Act ; act in the living present ; 
Heart within, and G-od o'erhead. 

7. Lives of great men all remind us 

"We can make our lives sublime, 
And departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time ; 

8. Footprints that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, shall take heart again. 

9. Let us, then, be up and doing 
With a heart for any fate ; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait. 



262 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GAT STTLE. 

The Gay Style is. appropriate for the delivery of merry, 
joyous thought. Dramatic scenes, sketches of life and 
manners, vivid delineations of character, all demand the 
Gay Style. 

Spring. 

Bryant. 

1. Is this a time to be gloomy and sad, 

When our mother Nature laughs around, 
When even the deep blue heavens look glad, 

And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground ? 

2. The clouds are at play in the azure space, 

And their shadows at play on the bright green vale ; 
And here they stretch to the frolic chase, 
And there they roll on the easy gale. 

3. And look at the broad-faced sun, how he smiles 

On the dewy earth that smiles on his ray, 

On the leaping waters and gay young isles ; 

Ay, look, and he'll smile thy gloom away. 



Young Lochinvar. 

Scott. 
1. 0, young Lochinvar is come out of the west ! 

Through all the wide border his steed was the best; 
And save his good broadsword he weapon had none j 
He rode aU unarmed, and he rode all alone. 
So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, r 
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar. 

-2. He staid not for brake, and he stopped not for stone : 
He swam the Eske river, where ford there was none ; 
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate 
The bride had consented, the gallant came late. 



GAY STYLE. 263 

For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war, 
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar. 

3. So boldly he entered the Netherby halL 

'Mong bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all. 
Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword, 
(For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,) 
" come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, 
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar ? " 

4. " I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied; 
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide; 
And now am I come, with this lost love of mine, 
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine. 
There be maidens in Scotland, more lovely by far, 
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar." 

5. The bride kissed the goblet, the knight took it up, 
He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup : 
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, 
"With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye. 

He took her soft hand ere her mother could bar, 
" Now tread we a measure," said young Lochinvar. 

6. So stately his form, and so lovely her face, 
That never a hall such a galliard did grace ; 
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, 
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume, 
And the bride-maidens whispered, " 'Twere better by far 
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar." 

7. One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear 

When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near; 

So light to the croup the fair lady he swung, 

So light to the saddle before her he sprung. 

" She is won ! we are gone — over bank, bush, and scaur — 

They'll have swift steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar. 

8. There was mounting 'mong G-rsemes of the Netherby clan, 
Forsters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran ; 
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee, 

But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see. 

So daring in love, and so dauntless in war, 

Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar? 



264 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Let Us Try to be Happy. 

1. Let us try to Toe happy! We may if we will 
Find some pleasures in life to o'erbalance the ill ; 
There was never an evil, if well understood, 

But what, rightly managed, would turn to a good. 

If we were but as ready to look to the light 

As we are to sit moping because it is night, 

We should own it a truth, both in word and in deed, 

That who tries to be happy is sure to succeed. 

2. Let us try to be happy ! Some shades of regret 
Are sure to hang round which we cannot forget ; 
There are times when the lightest of spirits must bow, 
And the sunniest face wear a cloud on its brow. 

We must never bid feelings, the purest and best, 
To lie blunted and cold in our bosom at rest ; 
But the deeper our own griefs the greater our need 
To try to be happy lest other hearts bleed. 

3. try to be happy ! It is not for long 

We shall cheer on each other by counsel or song; 
If we make the best use of our time that we may, 
There is much we can do to enliven the way; 
Let us only in earnestness each do our best, 
Before G-od and our conscience, and trust for the rest ; 
Still taking this truth, both in word and in deed, 
That who tries to be happy is sure to succeed. 



Coquette Punished. 

1. Ellen was fair, and knew it, too, 
As other village beauties do, 

Whose mirrors never lie ; 
Secure of any swain she chose, 
She smiled on half a dozen beaux, 
And, reckless of a lover's woes, 
She cheated these and taunted those, 
" For how could any one suppose 

A clown could take her eye ? " 

2. But whispers through the village ran 
That Edgar was the happy man 

The maid designed to bless j 



GAY STYLE. 265 

For, wheresoever moved the fair, 
The youth was, like her shadow, there, 
And rumor boldly matched the pair, 
For village folks will guess. 

3. Edgar did love, but was afraid 
To make confession to the maid, 

So bashful was the youth : 
Certain to meet a kind return, 
He let the flame in secret burn, 
Till from his lips the maid should learn 

Officially the truth. 

4. At length one morn to take the air, 
The youth and maid, in one-horse chair, 

A long excursion took. 
Edgar had nerved his bashful heart 
The sweet confession to impart, 
For ah I suspense had caused a smart 

He could no longer brook. 

5. He drove, nor slackened once his reins, 
Till Hempstead's wide-extended plains 

Seemed joined to skies above : 
Nor house, nor tree, nor shrub was near 
The rude and dreary scene to cheer, 
Nor soul within ten miles to hear, 
And still poor Edgar's silly fear 

Forbade to speak of love. 

6. At last one desperate effort broke 
The bashful spell, and Edgar spoke 

With most persuasive tone ; 
Eecounted past attendance o'er, 
And then, by all that's lovely, swore 
That he would love forever more, 

If she'd become his own. 

7. The maid in silence heard his prayer, 
Then, with a most provoking air, 

She tittered in his face ; 
And said, " 'Tis time for you to know 
A lively girl must have a beau, 
Just like a reticule — for show; 
And at her nod to come and go ; 

But he should know his place. 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

8. " Tour penetration must be dull 
To let a hope within your skull 

Of matrimony spring. 
Your wife ? ha ! ha ! upon my word, 
The thought is laughably absurd 
As any thing I ever heard — 

I never dreamed of such a thing I " 

9. The lover sudden dropp'd his rein 
"When on the center of the plain ; 

" The linch-pin's out ! " he cried ; 
" Be pleased one moment to alight, 
Till I can set the matter right, 

That we may safely ride," 

10. He said, and handed out the fair; 
Then laughing, cracked his whip in air, 
And wheeling round his horse and chair, 
Exclaimed, " Adieu, I leave you there 

In solitude to roam." 
" What mean you, sir ? " the maiden cried, 
" Did you invite me out to ride, 
To leave me here without a guide ? 

Nay, stop, and take me home." 

11. " What 1 take you home 1 " exclaimed the beau; 
" Indeed, my dear, Fd like to know 

How such a hopeless wish could grow, 

Or in your bosom spring. 
What ! take Ellen home ! ha! hal upon my word, 
The thought is laughably absurd 
As any thing I ever heard — 

I never dreamed of such a thing 1 " 



Rhyme of the Rail. 



1. Singing through the forests, 
Rattling over ridges, 
Shooting under arches, 
Rumbling over bridges ; 



GAY STYLE. 267 

Whizzing through the mountains, 

Buzzing o'er the vale, 
Bless me ! this is pleasant, 

Riding on the raiL 

2. Men of different stations 

In the eye of fame, 
Here are very quickly 

Coming to the same ; 
High and lowly people, 

Birds of every feather, 
On a common level, " 

Traveling together. 

3. Gentlemen in shorts, 

Looming very tall ; 
Gentlemen at large, 

Talking very small ; 
Gentlemen in tights, 

"With a loose-ish mien ; 
Gentlemen in gray, 

Looking rather green ; 

4. Gentlemen quite old 

Asking for the news ; 
Gentlemen in black, 

In a fit of blues ; 
Gentlemen in claret, 

Sober as a vicar ; 
Gentlemen in Weed, 

Dreadfully in liquor. 

5. Stranger on the right 

Looking very sunny, 

Obviously reading 

Something rather funny. 

Now the smiles are thicker — 
"Wonder what they mean ? 

Faith, he's got the Knicker- 
bocker Magazine 1 

6. Stranger on the left 

Closing up his peepers ; 
Now he snores amain, 
Like the Seven Sleepers. 



268 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

At his feet a volume 
Gives the explanation, 

How the man grew stupid 
From " association I " 

7. Ancient maiden lady 

Anxiously remarks, 
That there must be peril 

'Mong so many sparks ; 
Koguish-looking fellow, 

Turning to the stranger, 
Says it's his opinion 

She is out of danger. 

8. "Woman with her baby, 

Sitting vis-a-vis ; 
Baby keeps a- squalling, 

Woman looks at me ; 
Asks about the distance, 

Says it's tiresome talking, 
Noises of the cars 

Are so very shocking. 

9. Market woman, careful 

Of the precious casket, 
Knowing eggs are eggs, 

Tightly holds her basket ; 
Feeling that a smash, 

If it come, would surely 
Send her eggs to pot 

Eather prematurely. 

10. Singing through the forests, 

Rattling over ridges, 
Shooting under arches, 

Rumbling over bridges ; 
Whizzing through the mountains, 

Buzzing o'er the vale ; 
Bless me ! this is pleasant, 

Riding on the rail. 



JOYOUS STYLE. 269 



CHAPTER IX. 

* JOYOUS STYLE. 

The Joyous Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
ecstatic mirth, joy and light and playful humor. 

Many of the scenes and passages of Shakspeare, Scott, 
Irving and Cowper demand the Joyous Style. 

GlJNEOPATHY. 

Saxe. 

1. I saw a lady yesterday, 

A regular M. D., 
Who'd taken from the Faculty 

Her medical degree; 
And I thought if ever I was sick 

My doctor she should be. 

2. I pity the deluded man 

Who foolishly consults 
Another man, in hopes to find 

Such magical results 
As when a pretty woman lays 

Her hand upon his pulse ! 

3. I had a strange disorder once, 

A kind of chronic chill, 
That all the doctors in the town, 

With all their vaunted skill, 
Could never cure, I'm very sure, 

With powder nor with pill ; 

4. I don't know what they called it 

In their pompous terms of art, 
Nor if they thought it mortal 

In such a vital part ; 
I only know 'twas reckoned 

" Something icy round the heart." 



270 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

5. A lady came, her presence brought 

The blood into my ears. 
She took my hand, and something like 

A fever now appears. 
Great Galen ! I was all aglow, 

Though I'd been cold for years I 

6. Perhaps it isn't every case 

That's fairly in her reach, 
But should I e'er be ill again 

I fervently beseech 
That I may have, for life or death, 

A lady for my " leech I " 






Meecutio's Htjmoeous Desceiption of Queen Mab. 

ShaTcspeare. 

then I see Queen Mab hath been with you ! 

She comes 
In shape no bigger than an agate stone 
On the forefinger of an alderman, 
Drawn by a team of little atomies 
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep: 
Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs ; 
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers ; 
The traces of the smallest spider's web ; 
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams ; 
Her whip of cricket's bone ; the lash of film ; 
Her wagoner a small gray-coated gnat, 
Not half so big as a round little worm 
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid ; 
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, 
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, 
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers. 
And in this state she gallops night by night 
Through lover's brains, and then they dream of love ; 
On courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight ; 
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees ; 
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream. 
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, 
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit • 



JOYOUS STYLE. 271 

And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail, 
Tickling a parson's nose as he lies asleep, 
Then dreams he of another benefice ; 
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, 
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, 
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, 
And healths five fathoms deep ; and then anon 
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes ; 
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two, 
And sleeps again. 



272 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER X. 

SUBLIME STYLE. 

The Sublime Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
those forms of thought which in a quiet way express 
sublimity, grandeur, reverence, adoration, devotion, awe, 
amazement, etc. 

In Memobiam — A. Lincoln. 

Mrs. Emily J. Bugbee. 

1. There's a burden of grief on the breezes of spring, 
And a song of regret from the bird on its wing ; 
There's a pall on the sunshine and over the flowers, 
And a shadow of graves on these spirits of ours ; 
Eor a star hath gone out from the night of our sky, 

On whose brightness we gazed as the war-cloud rolled by ; 
So tranquil and steady and clear were its beams, 
That they fell like a vision of peace on our dreams. 

2. A heart that we knew had been true to our weal, 
And a hand that was steadily guiding the wheel ; 
A name never tarnished by falsehood or wrong, 

That had dwelt in our hearts like a soul-stirring song ; 
Ah, that pure, noble spirit has gone to its rest, 
And the true hand lies nerveless and cold on his breast ; 
But the name and the memory, these never will die, 
But grow brighter and dearer as ages go by. 

3. Tet the tears of a nation fall over the dead, 
Such tears as a nation before never shed, 

For our cherished one fell by a dastardly hand, 

A martyr to truth and the cause of the laud ; 

And a sorrow has surged, like the waves to the shore 

When the breath of the tempest is sweeping them o'er; 

And the heads of the lofty and lowly have bowed 

As the shaft of the lightning sped out from the cloud. 



SUBLIME STYLE. 273 

4. Not gathered, like "Washington, home to his rest, 
When the sun of his life was far down in the west ; 
But stricken from earth in the midst of his years, 
With the Canaan in view, of his prayers and his tears. 
And the people, whose hearts in the wilderness failed, 
Sometimes, when the stars of their promise had paled, 
Now stand by his side on the mount of his fame, 
And yield him their hearts in a grateful acclaim. 

5. Tet there on the mountain our leader must die, 
With the fair land of promise spread out to his eye ; 
His work is accomplished, and what he has done 
Will stand as a monument under the sun ; 

And his name, reaching down through the ages of time, 
Will still through the years of eternity shine, 
Like a star sailing on through the depths of the blue, 
On whose brightness we gaze every evening anew. 

6. His white tent is pitched on the beautiful plain, 
Where the tumult of battle comes never again, 

Where the smoke of the war-cloud ne'er darkens the air, 
Nor falls on the spirit a shadow of care. 
The songs of the ransomed enrapture his ear, 
And he heeds not the dirges that roll for him here ; 
In the calm of his spirit, so strange and sublime, 
He is lifted far over the discords of time. 

T. Then bear him home gently, great son of the West ! 
'Mid her fair blooming prairies lay Lincoln to rest ; 
From the nation who loved him she takes to her trust, 
And will tenderly garner the consecrate dust. 
A Mecca his grave to the people shall be, 
And a shrine evermore for the hearts of the free. 



Break ! Break ! Break ! 

T&nnyson. 

Break, break, break, 

On thy cold gray stones, sea ! 
And I would that my tongue could utter 

The thoughts that arise in me. 
18 



274 SCTEHCE OF ELOCUTION. 

2. well for the fisherman's hoy 

That he shouts with his sister at play I 
well for the sailor lad 

That he sings in his boat on the bay ! 

3. And the stately ships go on 

To their haven under the hill ; 
But for the touch of a vanished hand ! 
And the sound of a voice that is still. 

4. Break, break, break, 

At the foot of thy crags, sea ! 
But the tender grace of a day that is dead 
Will never come back to me. 



God. 

Dershavin. 



thou eternal One I whose presence bright 

All space doth occupy, all motion guide ; 
Unchanged through time's all devastating flight ! 

Thou only God — there is no God beside ! 
Being above all beings I Mighty One, 

"Whom none can comprehend and none explore ; 
Who fill'st existence with thyself alone, 

Embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er ; 

Being whom we call God, and know no more ! 

In its sublime research philosophy 

May measure out the ocean deep, may count 
The sands or the sun's rays ; but God ! for thee 

There is no weight nor measure ; none can mount 
Up to thy mysteries ; Reason's brightest spark, 

Though kindled by thy light, in vain would try 
To trace thy counsels, infinite and dark ; 

And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high, 

Even like past moments in eternity. 

Thou from primeval nothingness didst call 
First chaos, then existence ; Lord, on thee 

Eternity hath its foundation ; all 
Sprung forth from thee — of light, joy, harmony, 



SUBLIME STYLE. 275 

Sole origin — all life, all beauty thine ; 

Thy word created all, and doth create ; 
Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine ; 

Thou art and wert and shalt be ! Glorious ! Great ! 

Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate ! 

4. Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround — 

Upheld by thee, by thee inspired with breath I 
Thou the beginning with the end hast bound, 

And beautifully mingled life and death ! 
As sparks mount upward from the fiery blaze, 

So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from thee ; 
And as the spangles in the sunny rays 

Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry 
Of heaven's bright army glitters in thy praise. 

5. A million torches, lighted by thy hand, 

Wander unwearied through the blue abyss — 
They own thy power, accomplish thy command, 

All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss. 
"What shall we call them ? Piles of crystal light — 

A glorious company of golden streams — 
Lamps of celestial ether burning bright — 

Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams ? 
But thou to these art as the noon to night. 

6. Yes, as a drop of water in the sea, 

All this magnificence in thee is lost : 
"What are ten thousand worlds compared to thee ? 

And what am I then ? . Heaven's unnumbered host, 
Though multiplied by myriads, and arrayed 

In all the glory of sublimest thought, 
Is but an atom in the balance, weighed 

Against thy greatness — is a cipher brought 

Against infinity ! "What am I then ? Naught ! 

f. Naught ! But the effluence of thy light divine, 
Pervading worlds, hath reached my bosom too; 

Yes, in my spirit doth thy spirit shine 
As shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew. 

Naught ! But I live, and on hope's pinions fly 
Eager toward thy presence ; for in thee 

I live and breathe and dwell ; aspiring high, 



276 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Even to the throne of thy divinity. 

I am, G-od ! and surely thou must be, 

8. Thou art — directing, guiding all— thou art! 

Direct my understanding then to thee ; 
Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart ; 

Though but an atom 'midst immensity, 
Still I am something, fashioned by thy band. 

I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth, 
On the last verge of mortal being stand, 

Close to the realms where angels have their birth, 
Just on the boundaries of the spirit-land ! 

9. The chain of being is complete in me, 

In me is matter's last gradation lost, 
And the next step is spirit — Deity! 

I can command the lightning, and am dust ! 
A monarch and a slave, a worm, a god! 

Whence came I here, and how ? so marvelously 
Constructed and conceived ? unknown ! this clod 

Lives surely through some higher energy ; 

Eor from itself alone it could not be ! 

10. Creator, yes. Thy wisdom and thy word 

Created me. Thou source of life and good. 
Thou spirit of my spirit, and my Lord, 

Thy light, thy love, in their bright plenitude 
Filled me with an immortal soul, to spring 

Over the abyss of death, and bade it wear 
The garments of eternal day, and wing 

Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere, 

Even to its source — to thee — its Author there. 

11. thoughts ineffable ! visions blest ! 

Though worthless our conceptions all of thee, 
Tet shall thy shadowed image fill our breast, 

And waft its homage to thy Deity. 
God ! thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar, 

Thus seek thy presence — Being wise and good ! 
'Midst thy vast works admire, obey, adore • 

And when the tongue is eloquent no more 

The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude. 



SUBLIME STYLE. 277 

God's First Temples. 

Bryant. 

1. The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 

And spread the roof above them, ere he framed 
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 
The sound of anthems in the darkling wood, 
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down 
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And supplication. For bis simple heart 
Might not resist the sacred influences 
That, from the stilly twilight of the place, 
And from the gray old trunks, that, high in heaven, 
Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound 
Of the invisible breath, that swayed at once 
All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed 
His spirit with the thought of boundless Power 
And inaccessible Majesty. Ah, why 
Should we, in the worlds riper years, neglect 
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore 
' Only among the crowd, and under roofs 

That our frail hands have raised ? Let me, at least, 
Here, in the shadow of the aged wood, 
Offer one hymn ; thrice happy, if it find 
Acceptance in his ear. 

2. Father, thy hand 
Hath reared these venerable columns : thou 

Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down 
Upon the naked earth, and forthwith rose 
All these fair ranks of trees. They in thy sun 
Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze, 
And shot toward heaven. The century -living crow, 
Whose births was in their tops, grew old and died 
Among their branches, till at last they stood, 
As now they stand, massy and tall and dark, 
Fit shrine for humble worshiper to hold 
Communion with his Maker. 

3. Here are seen 
No traces of man's pomp or pride ; no silks 
Rustle, no jewels shine, nor envious eyes 



278 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Encounter ; no fantastic carvings show 

The boast of our vain race to change the form 

Of thy fair works. But thou art here ; thou fillest 

The solitude. Thou art in the soft winds 

That run along the summits of these trees 

In music ; thou art in the cooler breath, 

That, from the inmost darkness of the place, 

Comes, scarcely felt ; the barky trunks, the ground, 

The fresh, moist ground, are all instinct with thee. 

4. Here is continual worship ; nature here, 
In the tranquillity that thou dost love, 
Enjoys thy presence. Noiselessly around, 
Erom perch to perch the solitary bird 

Passes ; and yon clear spring, that, 'midst its herbs, 
"Wells softly forth, and visits the strong roots 
Of half the mighty forest, tells no tale 
Of all the good it does. 

5. Thou hast not left 
Thyself without a witness, in these shades, 

Of thy perfections. G-randeur, strength and grace 

Are here to speak of thee. This mighty oak — 

By whose immovable stem I stand, and seem 

Almost annihilated — not a prince, 

In all the proud old world beyond the deep, 

Ere wore his crown as loftily as he 

"Wears the green coronal of leaves with which 

Thy hand has graced him. Nestled at his root 

Is beauty, such as blooms not in the glare 

Of the broad sun. That delicate forest flower, 

With scented breath, and looks so like a smile, 

Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mold, 

An emanation of the indwelling life, 

A visible token of the upholding love, 

That are the soul of this wide universe. 

6. My heart is awed within me when I think 
Of the great miracle that still goes on, 

In silence, round me — the perpetual work 
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed 
Eorever. Written on thy works I read 
The lesson of thy own eternity. 



SUBLIME STYLE. 279 

Lo ! ail grow old and die ; but see, again, 
How, on the faltering footsteps of decay, 
Youth presses — ever gay and beautiful youth — 
In all its beautiful forms. These lofty trees 
Wave not less proudly that their ancestors 
Molder beneath them. 

there is not lost 
One of earth's charms : upon her bosom yet, 
After the flight of untold centuries, 
The freshness of her far beginning lies, 
And yet shall lie. Life mocks the idle hate 
Of his arch enemy Death ; yea> seats himself 
Upon the sepulcher, and blooms and smiles, 
And of the triumphs of his ghastly foe 
Makes his own nourishment. For he came forth 
From thine own bosom, and shall have no end. 

There have been holy men who hid themselves 

Deep in the woody wilderness, and gave 

Their lives to thought and prayer, till they outlived 

The generation born with them, nor seemed 

Less aged than the hoary trees and rocks 

Around them ; and there have been holy men 

Who deemed it were not well to pass life thus. 

But let me often to these solitudes 

Betire, and, in thy presence, re-assure 

My feeble virtue. Here, its enemies, 

The passions, at thy plainer footsteps, shrink, 

And tremble, and are still 

God, when thou 
Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire 
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill, 
With all the waters of the firmament, 
The swift, dark whirlwind, that uproots the woods 
And drowns the viUages ; when, at thy call, 
Uprises the great deep, and throws himself 
Upon the continent, and overwhelms 
Its cities ; who forgets not, at the sight 
Of these tremendous tokens of thy power, 
His pride, and lays his strifes and follies by I 
from these sterner aspects of thy face 



280 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Spare me and mine ; nor let us need the wrath 
Of the mad, unchained elements, to teach 
Who rules them. Be it ours to meditate, 
In these calm shades, thy milder majesty, 
And to the beautiful order of thy works 
Learn to conform the order of our lives. 



The Closing Year. 

Prentice. 



'Tis midnight's holy hour, and silence now 

Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er 

The still and pulseless world. Hark ! on the winds 

The bell's deep tones are swelling — 'tis the knell 

Of the departed year. No funeral train 

Is sweeping past ; yet, on the stream and wood, 

"With melancholy light, the moonbeams rest 

Like a pale, spotless shroud ; the air is stirred 

As by a mourner's sigh ; and on yon cloud, 

That floats so still and placidly through heaven, 

The spirits of the seasons seem to stand, 

Young Spring, bright Summer, Autumn's solemn form, 

And Winter with his aged locks, and breathe, 

In mournful cadences, that come abroad 

Like the far wind-harp's wild and touching wail, 

A melancholy dirge o'er the dead year, 

Gone from the earth forever. 

'Tis a time 
For memory and for tears. Within the deep, 
Still chambers of the heart, a specter dim, 
Whose tones are like the wizard voice of Time, 
Heard from the tomb of ages, points its cold 
And solemn finger to the beautiful 
And holy visions that have passed away, 
And left no shadow of their loveliness 
On the dead waste of life. That specter lifts 
The coffin -lid of Hope and Joy and Love, 
And, bending mournfully above the pale, 
Sweet forms, that slumber there, scatters dead flowers 
O'er what has passed to nothingness. 



SUBLIME STYLE. 281 

3. The year 
Has gone, and with it many a glorious throng 
Of happy dreams. Its mark is on each brow, 
Its shadow in each heart. In its swift course 
It waved its scepter o'er the beautiful — 
And they are not. It laid its pallid hand 
Upon the strong man — and the haughty form 
Is fallen, and the flashing eye is dim. 

It trod the hall of revelry, where thronged 
The bright and joyous — and the tearful wail 
Of stricken ones is heard, where erst the song 
And reckless shout resounded. 

4. It passed o'er 
The battle-plain, where sword and spear and shield 
Flashed in the light of mid-day — and the strength 
Of serried hosts is shivered, and the grass, 

Green from the soil of carnage, waves above 
The crushed and moldering skeleton. It came, 
And faded like a wreath of mist at eve ; 
Yet, ere it melted in the viewless air, 
It heralded its millions to their home 
In the dim land of dreams. 

5. Remorseless Time ! 
Fierce spirit of the glass and scythe ! what power 
Cau stay him in his silent course, or melt 

His iron heart to pity ? On, still on 

He presses, and forever. The proud bird, 

The condor of the Andes, that can soar 

Through heaven's uufathomable depths, or brave 

The fury of the northern hurricane, 

And bathe his plumage in the thunder's home, 

Furls his broad wings at nightfall, and sinks down 

To rest upon his mountain crag ; but Time 

Knows not the weight of sleep or weariness, 

And night's deep darkness has no chain to bind 

His rushing pinions. 

6. Revolutions sweep 

O'er earth, like troubled visions o'er the breast 
Of dreaming sorrow ; cities rise and sink, 
Like bubbles on the water ; fiery isles 



282 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Spring blazing from the ocean, and go back 
To their mysterious caverns ; mountains rear 
To heaven their bald and blackened cliffs, and bow 
Their tall heads to the plain ; new empires rise, 
Gathering the strength of hoary centuries, 
And rush down like the Alpine avalanche, 
Startling the nations, and the very stars, 
Yon bright and burning blazonry of God, 
Glitter awhile in their eternal depths, 
And, like the Pleiad, loveliest of their train, 
Shoot from their glorious spheres, and pass away, 
To darkle in the trackless void: yet Time — 
Time, the tomb-builder, holds his fierce career, 
Dark, stern, all-pitiless, and pauses not 
Amid the mighty wrecks that strew his path, 
To sit and muse, like other conquerors, 
Upon the fearful ruin he has wrought. 



Morning Hymn to Mont Blanc. 

Coleridge. 

Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star 
In his steep course ? so long he seems to pause 
On thy bald, awful head, sovereign Blanc 1 
The Arve and Aveiron at thy base 
Rave ceaselessly ; but thou, most awful form ! 
Bisest forth from thy silent sea of pines, 
How silently ! Around thee and above 
Deep is the air and dark, substantial black, 
An ebon mass ; methinks thou piercest it, 
As with a wedge ! But when I look again, 
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine, 
Thy habitation from eternity! 

dread and silent mount ! I gazed upon thee, 
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, 

Didst vanish from my thought : entranced in prayer 

1 worshiped the Invisible alone. 

Yet like some sweet, beguiling melody, 

So sweet, we know not we are listening to it, 

Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thoughts, 



SUBLIME STYLE. 283 

Tea, with my life, and life's own secret joy — 
Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused, 
Into the mighty vision passing — there, 
As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven. 

3. Awake, my soul ! not only passive praise 
Thou owest — not alone these swelling tears, 
Mute thanks and secret ecstasy. Awake,- 
Voice of sweet song ! Awake, my heart, awake ! 
Green vales and icy cliffs all join my hymn. 
Thou first and chief, sole sovereign of the vale ! 
0, struggling with the darkness all the night, 
And visited all night hy troops of stars, 

Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink: 
Companion of the morning-star at dawn, 
Thyself, earth's rosy star, and of the dawn 
Co-herald I wake, wake, and utter praise. 
Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth ? 
Who filled thy countenance with rosy light ? 
Who made thee parent of perpetual streams ? 

4. And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad ! 
Who called you forth from night and utter death, 
From dark and icy caverns called you forth, 
Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks, 
Forever shattered and the same forever ? 

Who gave you your invulnerable life, 

Tour strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, 

Unceasing thunder and eternal foam ? 

And who commanded, and the silence came, 

"Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest ? " 

5. Te ice-falls ! ye that from the mountain's brow 
Adown enormous ravines slope amain — 
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, 
And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge ! 
Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts ! 

Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven 
Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun 
Clothe you with rainbows ? Who with living flowers 
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet ? 
" God ! " let the torrents, like a shout of nations, 
Answer, and let the ice-plains echo, " God ! " 



284 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

6. "God!" sing, ye meadow-streams, with gladsome voice! 
Te pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds ! 
And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow, 
And in their perilous fall shall thunder, " G-od 1 " 
Te living flowers that skirt the eternal frost ! 
Te wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest ! 
Te eagles, playmates of the mountain storm ! 
Te lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds! 
Te signs and wonders of the elements ! 
Utter forth " G-od ! " and fill the hills with praise. 

1. Once more, hoar mount, with thy sky-pointing peak, 
Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, 
Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene, 
Into the depth of clouds that vail thy breast, 
Thou, too, again, stupendous mountain ! thou, 
That, as I raise my head, awhile bowed down 
In adoration, upward from thy base 
Slow traveling, with dim eyes suffused with tears, 
Solemnly seemest, like a vapory cloud. 
To rise before me — rise, ever rise ! 
Rise, like a cloud of incense, from the earth. 
Thou kingly spirit throned among the hills, 
Thou dread embassador from earth to heaven, 
G-reat hierarch ! tell thou the silent sky, 
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun, 
Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God. 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 285 



CHAPTER XL 

ORATORICAL STYLE. 

The Oratorical Style is appropriate for the delivery of 
speeches, senatorial, political and judicial, orations and 
sermons, in which the object is not only to enlighten the 
understanding, but to influence the will and arouse the 
emotions and passions. 

Reply to Me. Wickham in Buee's Teial, 1807. 

William Wirt. 

1. In proceeding to answer the argument of the gentleman, I will 
treat him with candor. If I misrepresent him, it will not be inten- 
tionally. I will not follow the example which he has set me on a 
very recent occasion. I will endeavor to meet the gentleman's propo- 
sitions in their full force, and to answer them fairly. I will not, as I 
am advancing toward them, with my mind's eye measure the height, 
breadth and power of the proposition ; if I find it beyond my strength, 
halve it ; if still beyond my strength, quarter it ; if still necessary, 
subdivide it into eights ; and when, by this process, I have reduced 
it to the proper standard, take one of these sections and toss it with 
an air of elephantine strength and superiority. If I find myself capa- 
ble of conducting, by a fair course of reasoning, any one of his propo- 
sitions to an absurd conclusion, I will not begin by stating that absurd 
conclusion as the proposition itself which I am going to encounter. 
I will not, in commenting on the gentleman's authorities, thank the 
gentleman, with sarcastic politeness, for introducing them, declare 
that they conclude directly against him, read just so much of the 
authority as serves the purpose of that declaration, omitting that 
which contains the true point of the case, which makes against me ; 
nor, if forced by a direct call to read that part also, will I content 
myself by running over it as rapidly and inarticulately as I can, throw 
down the book with a theatrical air, and exclaim, " Just as I said ! " 
when I know it is just as I had not said. 



286 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

2. I know that, by adopting these arts, I might raise a laugh at the 
gentleman's expense; but I should be very little pleased with myself 
if I were capable of enjoying a laugh procured by such means. I 
know, too, that, by adopting such arts, there will always be those 
standing around us who have not comprehended the whole merits of 
the legal discussion, with whom I might shake the character of the 
gentleman's science and judgment as a lawyer. I hope I shall never 
be capable of such a wish ; and I had hoped that the gentleman him- 
self felt so strongly that proud, that high, aspiring and ennobling 
magnanimity, which I had been told conscious talents rarely fail to 
inspire, that he would have disdained a poor and fleeting triumph 
gained 'by means like these. 



Aristocracy. 

Robert R. Livingston. 



1. The gentleman, who has so copiously declaimed against all dec- 
lamation, has pointed his artillery against the rich and great. "We 
are told that in eveiy country there is a natural aristocracy, and that 
this aristocracy consists of the rich and the great. Nay, the gentle- 
man goes further, and ranks in this class of men the wise, the learned, 
and those eminent for their talents or great virtues. Does a, man 
possess the confidence of his fellow- citizens for having done them 
important services? He is an aristocrat. Has he great integrity? 
He is an aristocrat. Indeed, to determine that one is an aristocrat, 
we need only to be assured that he is a man of merit. But I hope 
we may have such. So sensible am I of that gentleman's talents, in- 
tegrity and virtue, that we might at once hail him the first of the 
nobles, the very prince of the Senate. 

2. But whom, in the name of common sense, would the gentleman 
have to represent us ? Not the rich, for they are sheer aristocrats. 
Not the learned, the wise, the virtuous ; for they are all aristocrats ! 
Whom then ? Why, those who are not virtuous ; those who are not 
wise ; those who are not learned ; these are the men to whom alone 
we can trust our liberties ! He says further, we ought not to choose 
aristocrats, because the people will not have confidence in them. 
That is to say, the people will not have confidence in those who best 
deserve and most possess their confidence. He would have his gov- 
ernment composed of other classes of men. Where will he find 
them ? Why, he must go forth into the highways and pick up the 
rogue and the robber. He must go to the hedges and the ditches 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 287 

and bring in the poor, the blind and the lame. As the gentleman has 
thus settled the definition of aristocracy, I trust that no man will 
think it a term of reproach, for who among us would not be wise ? 
who would not be virtuous? who would not be above want? The 
truth is, in these republican governments we know no such ideal dis- 
tinctions. We are all equally aristocrats. Officers, emoluments, 
honors, the roads to preferment and to wealth, are alike open to all. 



The General Government and the States. 

Alexander Hamilton. 

1. Mr. Chairman, it has been advanced as a principle that no gov- 
ernment but a despotism can exist in a very extensive country. This 
is a melancholy consideration indeed. If it were founded on truth, 
we ought to dismiss the idea of a republican government, even for the 
State of New York. But the position has been misapprehended. Its 
application relates only to democracies, where the body of the people 
meet to transact business, and where representation is unknown. 
The application is wrong in respect to all representative governments, 
but especially in relation to a confederacy of States, in which the su- 
preme legislature has only general powers, and the civil and domestic 
concerns of the people are regulated by the laws of the several States. 
I insist that it never can be the interest or desire of the national legis- 
lature to destroy the State governments. The blow aimed at the 
members must give a fatal wound to the head, and the destruction of 
the States must be at once a political suicide. But imagine, for a 
moment, that a political frenzy should seize the government ; suppose 
they should make the attempt. Certainly, sir, it would be forever 
impracticable. This has been sufficiently demonstrated by reason and 
experience. It has been proved that the members of republics have 
been and ever will be stronger than the head. Let us attend to "one 
general historical example. 

2. In the ancient feudal governments of Europe there were, in the 
first place, a monarch ; subordinate to him a body of nobles, and sub- 
ject to these the vassals, or the whole body of the people. The au- 
thority of the kings was limited, and that of the barons considerably 
independent. The histories of the feudal wars exhibit little more 
than a series of successful encroachments on the prerogatives of 
monarchy. 

3. Here, sir, is one great proof of the superiority which the mem- 
bers in limited governments possess over their head. As long as the 



288 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

barons enjoyed the confidence and attachment of the people, they had 
the strength of the country on their side, and were irresistible. I 
may be told in some instances the barons were overcome ; but how 
did this happen ? Sir, they took advantage of the depression of the 
royal authority, and the establishment of their own power, to oppress 
and tyrannize over their vassals. As commerce enlarged and wealth 
and civilization increased, the people began to feel their own weight 
and consequence ; they grew tired of their oppressions ; united their 
strength with that of the prince, and threw off the yoke of aristoc- 
racy. These very instances prove what I contend for. They prove 
that in whatever direction the popular weight leans, the current of 
power will flow ; whatever the popular attachments be, there will 
rest the political superiority. 



Patriotic Self-Sacrifice. 

Clay. 

LI rose not to say one word which would wound the feelings of 
the President. The senator says that, if placed in like circumstances, 
I would have been the last man to avoid putting a direct veto upon 
the bill had it met my disapprobation, and he does me the honor to 
attribute to me high qualities of stern and unbending intrepidity. I 
hope that in all that relates to personal firmness, all that concerns a 
just appreciation of the insignificance of human life — whatever may 
be attempted to threaten or alarm a soul not easily swayed by oppo- 
sition, or awed or intimidated by menace — a stout heart and a steady 
eye that can survey, unmoved and undaunted, any mere personal 
perils that assail this poor, transient, perishing frame — I may, with- 
out disparagement, compare with other men. 

• 2. But there is a sort of courage which, I frankly confess, I do not 
possess ; a boldness to which I dare not aspire ; a valor which I can- 
not covet. I cannot lay myself down in the way of the welfare and 
happiness of my country. That I cannot — I have not the courage to 
do. I cannot interpose the power with which I may be invested — a 
power conferred, not for my personal benefit, not for my aggrandize- 
ment, but for my country's good — to check her onward march to 
greatness and glory. I have not courage enough, I am too cowardly, 
for that. I would not, I dare not, in the exercise of such a trust, lie 
down and piace my body across the path that leads my country to 
prosperity and happiness. This is a sort of courage widely different 
from that which a man may display in his private conduct and private 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 289 

relations. Personal or private courage is totally distinct from that 
higher and nobler courage which prompts the patriot to offer himself 
a voluntary sacrifice to his country's good. 



Ambition of a Statesman. 

Clay. 

1. I have been accused of ambition in presenting this measure — 
ambition, inordinate ambition. If I had thought of myself only I 
should have never brought it forward. I know well the perils to 
which I expose myself — the risk of alienating faithful and valued 
friends, with but little prospect of making new ones, if any new ones 
could compensate for the loss of those we have long tried and loved ; 
and I know well the honest misconception both of friends and foes. 
Ambition ! If I had listened to its soft and seducing whispers, if I 
had yielded myself to the dictates of a cold, calculating and pruden- 
tial policy, I would have stood still and unmoved. I might even have 
silently gazed on the raging storm, enjoyed its loudest thunders, and 
left those who are charged with the care of the vessel of State to con- 
duct it as they could. 

2. I have been heretofore often unjustly accused of ambition. Low, 
groveling souls, who are utterly incapable of elevating themselves to 
the higher and nobler duties of pure patriotism — beings who, forever 
keeping their own selfish ends in view, decide all public measures by 
their presumed influence -or their aggrandizement — judge me by the 
venal rule which they prescribe to themselves. I have given to the 
winds those false accusations, as I consign that which now impeaches 
my motives. I have no desire for office, not even the highest. The 
most exalted is but a prison, in which the incarcerated incumbent 
daily receives his cold, heartless visitants, marks his weary hours, 
and is cut off from the practical enjoyment of all the blessings of 
genuine freedom. 

3. I am no candidate for any office in the gift of the people of these 
States, united or separated; I never wish, never expect, to be. Pass 
this bill, tranquilize the country, restore confidence and affection in 
the Union, and I am willing "to go home to Ashland and renounce 
public service forever. I should there find in its groves, under its 
shades, on its lawns, 'mid my flocks and herds, in the bosom of my 
family, sincerity and truth, attachment and fidelity and gratitude, 
which I have not always found in the walks of public life. Yes, I 
have ambition ; but it is the ambition of being the humble instru- 

19 



290 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

merit, in the hands of Providence, to reconcile a divided people : once 
more to revive concord and harmony in a distracted land — the pleas- 
ing ambition of contemplating the glorious spectacle of a free, united, 
prosperous and fraternal people. 



National Character. 



1. The loss of a firm national character, or the degradation of a 
nation's honor, is the inevitable prelude to her destruction. Behold 
the once proud fabric of a Roman empire — an empire carrying its arts 
and arms into every part of the eastern continent ; the monarchs of 
mighty kingdoms dragged at the wheels of her triumphal chariots ; 
her eagle waving over the ruins of desolated countries. "Where is 
her splendor, her wealth, her power, her glory? Extinguished 
forever. Her moldering temples, the mournful vestiges of her 
former grandeur, afford a shelter to her muttering monks. Where 
are her statesmen, her sages, her philosophers, her orators, her gen- 
erals ? G-o to their solitary tombs and inquire. She lost her national 
character, and her destruction followed. The ramparts of her na- 
tional pride were broken down, and vandalism desolated her classic 
fields. 

2. Such, the warning voice of antiquity, the example of all repub- 
lics, proclaim may be our fate. But let us no longer indulge these 
gloomy anticipations. The commencement of our liberty presages the 
dawn of a brighter period to the world. That bold, enterprising 
spirit which conducted our heroes to peace and safety, and gave us a 
lofty rank amid the empires of the world, still animates the bosoms 
of their descendants. Look back to that moment when they un- 
barred the dungeons of the slave and dashed his fetters to the earth; 
when the sword of a "Washington leaped from its scabbard to avenge 
the slaughter of our countrymen. Place their example before you. 
Let the sparks of their veteran wisdom flash across your minds, and 
the sacred altar of your liberty, crowned with immortal honors, rise 
before you. Relying on the virtue, the courage, the patriotism, and 
the strength of our country, we may expect our national character 
will become more energetic, our citizens more enlightened, and we 
may hail the age as not far distant when will be heard, as the proud- 
est exclamation of man, I am an American! 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 291 

Responsibilities of our Republic. 

* Joseph Story. 

1. The old world has already revealed to us, in its unsealed books, 
the beginning and end of all its own marvelous struggles in the cause 
of liberty. Greece, lovely Greece, " the land of scholars and the nurse 
of arms," where sister republics in fair procession chanted the praises 
of liberty and the gods, where and what is she ? For two thousand 
years the oppressor has bound her to the earth. Her arts are no 
more. The last sad relics of her temples are but the barracks of a 
ruthless soldiery ; the fragments of her columns and her palaces are 
in the dust, yet beautiful in ruin. She fell not when the mighty were 
upon her. Her sons were united at Thermopylae and Marathon, and 
the tide of her triumph rolled back upon the Hellespont. She was 
conquered by her own factions. She fell by the hands of her own 
people. The man of Macedonia did not the work of destruction. It 
was already done, by her own corruptions, banishments and dis- 
sensions. 

2. Rome, republican Rome, whose eagles glanced in the rising and 
setting sun, where and what is she ? The Eternal City yet remains, 
proud even in her desolation, noble in her decline, venerable in the 
majesty of religion, and calm as in the composure of death. The ma- 
laria has but traveled in the paths worn by her destroyers. More 
than eighteen centuries have mourned over the loss of her empire. 
A mortal disease was upon her vitals before Caesar had crossed the 
Rubicon. The Goths and Vandals and Huns, the swarms of the 
North, completed only what was already begun at home. Romans 
betrayed Rome. The legions were bought and sold, but the people 
offered the .tribute-money. "When we reflect on what has been and 
is, how is it possible not to feel a profound sense of the responsible- 
ness of this republic to all future ages ! What vast motives press 
upon us for lofty efforts ! "What brilliant prospects invite our enthu- 
siasm ! "What solemn warnings at once demand our vigilance and 
moderate our confidence I 



Duty oe Literary Men to their Country. 

Gri/mke. 

1. "We cannot honor our country with too deep a reverence; we 
cannot love her with an affection too pure and fervent ; we cannot 
serve her with an energy of purpose or a faithfulness of zeal too stead- 



292 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

fast and ardent. And what is our country ? It is not the East, with 
her hills and her valleys, with her countless sails and the rocky ram- 
parts of her shores ; it is not the North, with her thousand villages, 
and her harvest-home, with her frontiers of. the lake and the ocean ; 
it is not the West, with her forest-sea and her inland isles, with her 
luxuriant- expanses, clothed in the verdant corn, with her "beautiful 
Ohio and her majestic Missouri ; nor is it yet the South, opulent in 
the mimic snow of the cotton, in the rich plantations of the rustling 
cane and in the golden robes of the rice-field. What are these but 
the sister families of one greater, better, holier family — our country ? 

2. I come not here to speak the dialect or to give the counsels of 
the patriot- statesman; but I come, a patriot-scholar, to vindicate the 
rights and to plead for the interests of American literature. And 
be assured that we cannot, as patriot-scholars, think too highly of 
that country, or sacrifice too much for her. And let us never forget — 
let us rather remember — with a religious awe that the union of these 
States is indispensable to our national independence and civil liberties^ 
to our prosperity, happiness and improvement. 

3. If, indeed, we desire to behold a literature like that which has 
sculptured with such energy of expression, which has painted so 
faithfully and vividly, the crimes, the vices, the follies of ancient and 
modern Europe — if we desire that our land should furnish for the 
orator and the novelist, for the painter and the poet, age after age, 
the wild and romantic scenery of war ; the glittering march of armies 
and the revelry of the camp ; the shrieks and blasphemies and all the 
horrors of the battle-field ; the desolation of the harvest and the burn- 
ing cottage ; the storm, the sack and the ruin of cities — if we desire 
to unchain the furious passions of jealousy and selfishness, of hatred, 
revenge and ambition, those lions that now sleep harmless in their 
den ; if we desire that the lake, the river, the oceans should blush with 
the blood of brothers ; that the winds should waft from the land to 
the sea, from the sea to the land, the roar and the smoke of battle ; 
that the very mountain-tops should become altars for the sacrifice of 
brothers ; if we desire that these and such as these — the elements, to 
an incredible extent, of the literature of the Old World — should be 
the elements of our literature ; then, but then only, let us hurl from 
its pedestal the majestic statue of our Union, and scatter its fragments 
over all our land. 

4. But if we covet for our country the noblest, purest, holiest litera- 
ture the world has ever seen, such a literature as shall honor God 
and bless mankind — a literature whose smiles might play upon an 
angel's face, whose tears "would not stain an angel's cheek;" then 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 293 

let us cling to the union of these States with a patriot's love, with a 
scholar's enthusiasm, with a Christian's hope. In her heavenly char- 
acter, as a holocaust self-sacrificed to Cod ; at the height of her glory, 
as the ornament of a free, educated, peaceful, Christian people, Ameri- 
can literature will find that the intellectual spirit is her very tree of 
life, and the Union her garden of paradise. 



American Laboeees. 

Naylor, 

1. The gentleman, sir, has misconceived the spirit and tendency of 
Northern institutions. He is ignorant of Northern character. He 
has forgotten the history of bis country. Preach insurrection to the 
Northern laborers ! Who are the Northern laborers ? The history 
of your country is their history. The renown of your country is their 
renown. The brightness of their doings is emblazoned on every page. 
Blot from your annals the words aud the doings of Northern laborers 
and the history of your country presents but a universal blank. Sir, 
who was he that disarmed the thunderer ; wrested from his grasp 
the boits of Jove ; calmed the troubled ocean ; became the central 
sun of the philosophical system of his age, shedding his brightness 
and effulgence on the whole civilized world — whom the great and 
mighty of the earth delighted to honor, who participated in the 
achievement of your independence, prominently assisted in molding 
your free institutions, and the beneficial effects of whose wisdom will 
be felt to the last moment of " recorded time ? " Who, sir, I ask, was 
he? A northern laborer, a Yankee tallow-chandler's son — a printer's 
runaway boy ! 

2. And who, let me ask the honorable gentleman, who was he that, 
in the days of our Revolution, led forth a Northern army — yes, an 
army of Northern laborers — and aided the chivalry of South Carolina 
in their defense against British aggression, drove the spoilers from 
their firesides, and redeemed her fair fields from foreign invaders? 
Who was he ? A Northern laborer, a Rhode Island blacksmith — the 
gallant General Greene — who left his hammer and his forge and went 
forth conquering and to conquer in the battle for our independence ! 
And will you preach insurrection to men like these ? 

3. Sir, our country is full of the achievements of Northern laborers. 
Where are Concord, and Lexington, and Princeton, and Trenton, and 
Saratoga, and Bunker Hill, but in the North ? And what, sir, has 
shed an imperishable renown on the never-dying names of those hal- 



294 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

lowed spots, but the blood and the struggles, the high daring and 
patriotism and sublime courage of Northern laborers ? The whole 
North is an everlasting monument of the freedom, virtue, intelligence 
and indomitable independence of Northern laborers 1 Go, sir, go, 
preach insurrection to men like these ! 

4. The fortitude of the men of the North, under intense suffering 
for liberty's sake, has been almost godlike ! History has so recorded 
it. Who comprised that gallant army, without food, without pay, 
shelterless, hopeless, penniless, and almost naked, in that dreadful 
winter — the midnight of our Revolution — whose wanderings could 
be traced by their blood tracks in the snow ; whom no arts Could 
seduce, no appeal lead astray, no sufferings disaffect ; but who, true 
to their country and its holy cause, continued to fight the good fight 
of liberty until it finally triumphed ? "Who, sir, were Roger Sherman 
and — ? But it is idle to enumerate. To name the Northern labor- 
ers who have distinguished themselves, and illustrated the history of 
their country, would require days of the time of this house. Nor is 
it necessary. Posterity will do them justice. Their deeds have been 
recorded in characters of fire ! 



Napoleon Bonaparte. 

PMUips. 

1. He is fallen ! We may now pause before that splendid prodigy 
which towered among us like some ancient ruin, whose frown terri- 
fied the glance its magnificence attracted. Grand, gloomy and pecul- 
iar, he sat upon the throne, a sceptered hermit, wrapt in the solitude 
of his own originality. A mind bold, independent and decisive ; a 
will despotic in its dictates ; an energy that distanced expedition and 
a conscience pliable to every touch of interest marked the outline of 
this extraordinary character, the most extraordinary, perhaps, that in 
the annals of this world ever rose or reigned or fell. 

2. Elung into life in the midst of a revolution that quickened every 
energy of a people who acknowledge no superior, he commenced his 
course, a stranger by birth, and a scholar by charity. With no friend 
but his sword, and no fortune but his talents, he rushed into the fists 
where rank and wealth and genius had arrayed themselves, and com- 
petition fled from him as from the glance of destiny. He knew no 
motive but interest, he acknowledged no criterion but success, he wor- 
shiped no God but ambition, and, with an Eastern devotion, he knelt 
at the shrine of his idolatry. 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 295 

3. Subsidiary to this there was no creed that he did not profess — 
there was no opinion that he did not promulgate. In the hope of a 
dynasty he upheld the Crescent ; for the sake of a divorce he bowed 
before the Cross,- the orphan of St. Louis, he became the adopted 
child of the Republic, and, with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins 
both of the throne and tribune, he reared the throne of his despotism. 
A professed Catholic, he imprisoned the Pope ; a pretended patriot, 
he impoverished the country ; and, in the name of Brutus, he grasped 
without remorse and wore without shame the diadem of the Caesars ! 
Through this pantomime of policy fortune played the clown to his 
caprices. At his touch crowns crumbled, beggars reigned, sj^stems 
vanished, the wildest theories took the color of his whim, and all 
that was venerable and all that was novel changed places with the 
rapidity of a drama. 

4. Even apparent defeat assumed the appearance of victory ; his 
flight from Egypt confirmed his destiny ; ruin itself only elevated him 
to empire. But if his fortune was great his genius was transcendent. 
Decision flashed upon his counsels, and it was the same to decide and 
to perform. To inferior intellects his combinations appeared perfectly 
impossible, his plans perfectly impracticable ; but in his hands sim- 
plicity marked their development and success vindicated their adop- 
tion. His person partook the character of his mind ; if the one never 
yielded in the cabinet, the other never bent in the field. Nature had 
no obstacle that he did not surmount, space no opposition that he did 
not spurn, and, whether amid Alpine rocks, Arabian sands, or Polar 
snows, he seemed proof against peril, and empowered with ubiquity ! 

5. The whole continent trembled at beholding the audacity of his 
designs and the miracle of their execution. Skepticism bowed to the 
prodigies of his performance; romance assumed the air of history; 
nor was there aught too incredible for belief or too fanciful for ex- 
pectation when the world saw a subaltern of Corsica waving his im- 
perial flag over her most ancient capitals. All the visions of antiquity 
became commonplaces in his contemplation. Kings were his people, 
nations were his outposts, and he disposed of courts and crowns and 
camps and churches and cabinets as if they were titular dignitaries 
of the chess-board. Amid all these changes he stood immutable as 
adamant. 

6. It mattered little whether in the field or in the drawing-room, 
with the mob or the levee, wearing the Jacobin bonnet or the iron 
crown, banishing a Braganza, or espousing a Hapsburg, dictating 
peace on a raft to the Czar of Russia, or contemplating defeat at the 
gallows of Leipsic, he was still the same military despot. 



296 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

7. In this wonderful combination his affectations of literature must 
not be omitted. The jailer of the press, be affected the patronage of 
letters; the proscriber of books, he encouraged philosophy; the per- 
secutor of authors and the murderer of printers, he yet pretended to 
the protection of learning. Such a medley of contradictions, and, at 
the same time, such an individual consistency, were never united in 
the same character. A royalist, a republican and an emperor, a Mo- 
hammedan, a Catholic and a patron of the synagogue, a subaltern and 
a sovereign, a traitor and a tyrant, a Christian and an infidel, he was, 
through all his vicissitudes, the same stern, impatient, inflexible orig- 
inal, the same mysterious, incomprehensible self — the man without a 
model and without a shadow. 



Unjust National Acquisitions. . 

Thomas Oorwin. 

1. Mr. President, the uneasy desire to augment our territory has 
depraved the moral sense and blighted the otherwise keen sagacity 
of our people. Sad, very sad, are the lessons which time has written 
for us. Through and in them all I see nothing but the inflexible exe- 
cution of that old law which ordains as eternal the cardinal rule, 
" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods, nor any thing which is 
his." Since I have lately heard so much about the dismemberment 
of Mexico I have looked back to see how, in the course of events, 
which some call " Providence," it has fared with other nations who 
engaged in this work of dismemberment. 

2. I see that in the latter half of the eighteenth century three pow- 
erful nations — Russia, Austria and Prussia — united in the dismember- 
ment of Poland. They said, too, as you say, " It is our destiny." 
They ,: wanted room." Doubtless each of these thought, with 
his share of Poland, his power was too strong ever to fear invasion, 
or even insult. One had his California, another his New Mexico, and 
the third his Vera Cruz. 

3. Did they remain untouched and incapable of harm? Alas, nol 
far, very far from it. Retributive justice must fulfill its destiny too. 
A few years pass off, and we hear of a new man, a Corsican lieutenant, 
the self-named " armed soldier of Democracy," Napoleon. He rav- 
ages Austria, covers her land with blood, drives the Northern Caesar 
from his capital, and sleeps in his palace. Austria may now remem- 
ber how her power trampled upon Poland. Did she not pay dear, 
very dear, for her California ? 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 297 

4. But has Prussia no atonement to make ? You see this same 
Napoleon, the blind instrument of Providence, at work there. The 
thunders of his cannon at Jena proclaim the work of retribution for 
Poland's wrongs, and the successors of the Great Frederick, the 
drill-sergeant of Europe, are seen flying across the sandy plains 
that surround their capital, right glad if they may escape captivity 
and death. 

5. But how fares it with the autocrat of Russia ? Is he secure in 
his share of the spoils of Poland? No. Suddenly we see, sir, six 
hundred thousand armed men marching to Moscow. Does his Vera 
Cruz protect him now ? Far from it. Blood, slaughter, desolation 
spread abroad over the land ; and, finally, the conflagration of the old 
commercial metropolis of Russia closes the retribution. She must pay 
for her share in the dismemberment of her impotent neighbor. 

6. Mr. President, a mind more prone to look for the judgments of 
Heaven in the doiugs of men than mine cannot fail, in all unjust ac- 
quisitions of territory, to see the providence of God. When Moscow 
burned, it seemed as if the earth was lighted up that the nations 
might behold the scene. As that mighty sea of fire gathered and 
heaved and rolled upward, and yet higher, till its flames licked the 
stars and fired the whole heavens, it did seem as though the God of 
the nations was writing, in characters of flame, on the front of his 
throne that doom that shall fall upon the strong nation which tram- 
ples in scorn upon the weak. 



Our System of Public Instruction should Dis- 
tinctively Inculcate a Love of Country. 

Newton BaUman. 

1. The true American patriot is ever a ivorshiper. The starry 
symbol of his country's sovereignty is to him radiant with a diviner 
glory than that which meets his mortal vision. It epitomizes the 
splendid results of dreary ages of experiments and failures in human 
government; and, as he gazes upon its starry folds undulating 
responsive to the whispering winds of the upper air, it sometimes 
seems to his rapt spirit to recede farther and farther into the soft blue 
skies, till the heavens open, and angel hands plant it upon the battle- 
ments of Paradise. Wherever that ensign floats, on the sea or on the 
land, it is to him the very Shekinah of his political love and faith, 
luminous with the presence of that God who conducted his fathers 



298 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

across the sea and through the fires of the Revolution to the Pisgah 
heights of civil and religious liberty. Its stars seem real; its lines of 
white symbol the purity of his heroic sires ; those of red their patriot 
blood shed in defense of the right. To defend that flag is to him 
something more than a duty, it is a joy, a coveted privilege ; akin to 
that which nerves the arm and directs the blow in defense of wife or 
child. To insult it, is worse than infamy; to make war upon it,more 
than treason. 

2. A perfect civil government is the sublimest earthly symbol of 
Deity — indeed, such a government is a transcript of the divine will : 
its spirit and principles identical with those with which He governs 
he universe. Its vigilance, care and protection, are ubiquitous: its 
strong haud is ever ready to raise the fallen, restrain the violent, and 
punish the aggressor ; its patient ear is bent to catch alike the com- 
plaint of the rich and strong, or the poor and weak, while unerring 
justice presides at the trial and settlement of every issue between 
man and man. 

3. Now, our government is not perfect, even in theory, and still 
less so in practice ; but it is good and strong and glorious enough to 
inspire a loftier patriotism than animates the people of any other 
nation. What element is wanting to evoke the passionate love and 
admiration of an American citizen for his country? Is it ancestry? 
Men of purer lives, sterner principles, or braver hearts than our 
fathers never crossed the sea. Is it motives? Not for war or con- 
quest, but for civil and religious liberty did our fathers approach these 
shores. Is it perils and obstacles ? Wintry storms, and icy coasts, 
and sterile soils; prowling beasts, and savage man, and hunger, and 
nakedness, and disease, and death, were the greetings our fathers 
received. Is it patient endurance ? Not till the revelations of the final 
day will the dauntless fortitude of our fathers, in the midst of appalling 
daggers and sufferings, be disclosed.. Is it heroic achievement ? Again 
and again has the haughty lion of St.. George been brought to the dust, 
and the titled chivalry of England overthrown by the resistless onset 
of the sons of liberty, led by " Mr. Washington ! " Is it moral sub- 
limity? Behold Witherspoon in the Continental Congress; Washing- 
ton at Yalley Forge; Clay in the Senate of 1850. Is it that we have 
no historical Meccas ? Where shall a patriot muse and pray, if not 
by the shades of Vernon or Ashland — at Marshfield or the Hermitage. 
Have we no great names to go flaming down the ages ? When will 
Henry's clarion voice be hushed, or Warren cease to tell men how to 
die for liberty? when will Adams, and Franklin, and Jefferson fade 
from historj^? Is it constitutional wisdom, excellence of laws, or 



ORATOKICAL STYLE. 299 

incentives to individual exertion ? No other lands can compare with 
ours in these respects. Is it grandeur of scenery ? God has made 
but one Niagara, one Mississippi, one Hudson. Is it territorial extent ? 
Our domain stretches from ocean to ocean, and from lake to gulf. 

4. By all these incentives let our school-boys be fired with an 
enthusiastic love for the dear land of their birth, the precious heritage 
of their fathers ; let them leave the school-room for the arena of active 
life, feeling that next to God and their parents, their country claims 
and shall receive their best affections and most uncompromising 
devotion; let them realize that their conduct will bring honor or dis- 
honor upon their country, as surely as upon their parents and friends ; 
let them learn to identify themselves as citizens with the interests 
of the commonwealth, blushing at whatever disgraces her, exulting 
in all that contributes to her glory and renown; let them feel that 
this great country is their country, that they have a personal pro- 
prietorship in the luster of her history, the honor of her name, the 
magnificence of her commerce, the valor of her fleets and armies, the 
inviolability of her Constitution and laws, and the magnitude and benef- 
icence of her civil, social, and religious institutions. 



Appeal in Behalf of Ireland. 

S. S. PrenMss, 

1. Fellow-citizens: It is no ordinary cause that has brought to- 
gether this vast assemblage on the present occasion. We have met, 
not to prepare ourselves for political contests ; we have met, not to 
celebrate the achievements of those gallant men who have planted 
our victorious standards in the heart of an enemy's country; we 
have assembled, not to respond to shouts of triumph from the "West • 
but to answer the cry of want and suffering which comes from the 
East. The Old World stretches out her arms to the New. The starv- 
ing parent supplicates the young and vigorous child for bread. 

2. There lies upon the other side of the wide Atlantic a beautiful 
island, famous in story and in song. Its area is not so great as that 
of the State of Louisiana, while its population is almost half that of 
the Union. It has given to the world more than its share of genius 
and of greatness. It has been prolific in statesmen, warriors, and 
poets. Its brave and generous sons have fought successfully all 
battles but their own. In wit and humor it has no equal ; while its 
harp, like its history, moves to tears by its sweet but melancholy 
pathos. 



300 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

3. Into this fair region God has seen fit to send the most terrible 
of all those fearful ministers that fulfill his inscrutable decrees. The 
earth has failed to give her increase. The common mother has for- 
gotten her offspring, and she no longer affords them their accustomed 
nourishment. Famine, gaunt and ghastly famine, has seized a nation 
with its strangling grasp. Unhappy Ireland, in the sad woes of the 
present, forgets, for a moment, the gloomy history of the past. 

4. it is terrible that, in this beautiful world which the good God 
has given us, and in which there is plenty for us all, men should die 
of starvation ! When a man dies of disease he alone endures the 
pain. Around his pillow are gathered sympathizing friends, who, if 
they cannot keep back the deadly messenger, cover his face and con- 
ceal the horrors of his visage as he delivers his stern mandate. In 
battle, in the fullness of his pride and strength, little recks the soldier 
whether the hissing bullet sings his sudden reqiiiem, or the cords of 
life are severed by the sharp steel. 

5. But he who dies of hunger wrestles alone, day by day, with his 
grim and unrelenting enemy. He has no friends to cheer him in the 
terrible conflict ; for if he had friends, how could he die of hunger ? 
He has not the hot blood of the soldier to maintain him ; for his foe, 
vampire-like, has exhausted his veins. Famine comes not- up, like a 
brave enemy, storming, by a sudden onset, the fortress that resists. 
Famine besieges. He draws his lines round the doomed garrison. 
He cuts off all supplies. He never summons to surrender, for he 
gives no quarter. 

6. Alas, for poor human nature! how can it sustain this fearful 
warfare?- Day by day the blood recedes, the* flesh deserts, the 
muscles relax, and the sinews grow powerless. At last the mind, 
which at first had bravely nerved itself against the contest, gives way 
under the mysterious influences which govern its union with the 
body. Then the victim begins to doubt the existence of an overruling 
Providence. He hates his fellow-men, and glares upon them with the 
longing of a cannibal; and, it may be, dies blaspheming. 

7. This is one of those cases in which, we may without impiety 
assume, as it were, the function of Providence. Who knows but that 
one of the very objects of this calamity is to test the benevolence and 
worthiness of us upon whom unlimited abundance is showered? In 
tne name, then, of common humanity, J invoke your aid in behalf of 
starving Ireland. He who is able, and will not aid such a cause, is 
not a man, and has no right to wear the form. He should be sent 
back to Nature's mint, and re-issued as a counterfeit on humanity of 
Nature's baser metal. 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 301 

Glokious New England. 

S. S. Prentiss. 

1. Glorious New England, thou art still true to thy ancient fame, 
and worthy of thy ancestral honors. "We, thy children, have assem- 
bled in this far distant land to celebrate thy birthday. A thousand 
fond associations throng upon us, roused by the spirit of the hour. 
On thy pleasant valleys rest, like sweet dews of morning, the gentle 
recollections of our early life ; around thy hills and mountains cling, 
like gathering mists, the mighty memories of the Revolution ; and far 
away in the horizon of thy past gleam, like thy own bright northern 
lights, the awful virtues of our pilgrim sires ! But while we de- 
vote this day to the remembrance of our native land, we forget not 
that in which our happy lot is cast. We exult in the reflection that, 
though we count by thousands the miles which separate us from our 
birth-place, still our country is the same. We are no exiles meeting 
upon the banks of a foreign river to swell its waters with our home- 
sick: tears. Here floats the same banner which rustled above our 
boyish heads, except that its mighty folds are wider and its glittering 
stars increased in number. 

2. The sons of New England are found in every State of the broad 
republic. In the East, the South and the unbounded West their 
blood mingles freely with every kindred current. ■ We have but 
changed our chamber in the paternal mansion ; in all its rooms we 
are at home, and all who inhabit it are our brothers. To us the 
Union has but one domestic hearth ; its household gods are all the 
same. Upon us, then, peculiarly devolves the duty of feeding the 
fires upon that kindly hearth, of guarding with pious care those sacred 
household gods. 

3. We cannot do with less than the whole Union. To us it admits 
of no division. In the veins of our children flows Northern and 
Southern blood. How shall it be separated? Who shall put asunder 
the best affectious of the heart, the noblest instincts of our nature ? 
We love the land of our adoption, so do we that of our birth. Let us 
ever be true to both, and always exert ourselves in maintaining the 
unity of our country, the integrity of the republic. 

4. Accursed, then, be the hand put forth to loosen the golden cord 
of union ! thrice accursed the traitorous lips which shall propose its 
severance ! 

5. But no, the Union cannot be dissolved; its fortunes are too 
brilliant to be marred ; its destinies too powerful to be resisted. 
Here will be their greatest triumph, their most mighty development. 



302 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

6. And when, a century hence, this Crescent City shall have filled 
her golden horns ; when within her broad-armed port shall be gath- 
ered the products of the industry of a hundred millions of freemen ; 
when galleries of art and halls of learning shall have made classic this 
mart of trade ; then may the sons of the Pilgrims, still wandering 
from the bleak hills of the North, stand upon the banks of the great 
river and exclaim, with mingled pride and wonder, Lo I this is our 
country; when did the world ever behold so rich and magnificent a 
city, so great and glorious a republic ! 



Speech Before the Virginia Convention oe Dele- 
gates, March, 1775. 

Patrick Henry. 

1. Mr. President, it is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of 
hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen 
to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this 
the part of wise men engaged in the great and arduous struggle for 
liberty ? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who having 
eyes see not, and having ears hear not, the things which so nearly 
concern their temporal salvation ? For my part, whatever anguish 
of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth ; to know 
the worst and to provide for it. 

2. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is, 
the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future 
but by the past. And, judging by the past, I wish to know what 
there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten 
years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased 
to solace themselves and the house. Is it that insidious smile 
with which our petition has been lately received ? Trust it not, 
sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be 
betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception 
of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which 
cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies neces- 
sary to a work of love and reconciliation ? Have we shown ourselves 
so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be caUed in to win back 
our love? 

3. Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of 
war and subjugation, the last arguments to which kings resort. I 
ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purposes be 



OKATOKICAL STYLE. 303 

not to force us to submission ? Can gentlemen assign any other pos- 
sible motive for it ? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of 
the world to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies ? No, 
sir, she has none. They are meant for us. They can be meant for 
no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains 
which the British ministry have been so long forging. 

4. And what have we to oppose them ? Shall we try argument ? 
Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we any thing 
new to offer upon the subject ? Nothing. We have held the subject 
up in every light of which it is capable ; but it has been all in vain. 
Shah we resort to entreaty and- supplication ? "What terms shall we 
find that have not been already exhausted ? Let us not, I beseech 
you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done every thing 
that could have been done to avert the storm that is now coming on. 
"We have petitioned, we have remonstrated, we have supplicated, we 
have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its 
interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Par- 
liament. 

5. Our petitions have been slighted, our remonstrances have pro- 
duced additional violence and insult, our supplications have been dis- 
regarded, and we have been spurned with contempt from the foot of 
the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond 
hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for 
hope. If we wish to be free ; if we mean to preserve inviolate those 
inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending ; if 
we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have 
been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to 
abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we 
must fight ! I repeat it, sir, we must fight ! An appeal to arms and 
to the God of hosts is all that is left us. 

6. They tell us, sir, that we are weak ; unable to cope with so for- 
midable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the 
next week or the next year ? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, 
and when a British guard shah be stationed in every house ? Shall 
we gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we acquire 
the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and 
hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have 
bound us hand and foot ? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper 
use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our 
power. 

7. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty, and 
in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any 



304 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not 
fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the 
destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles 
for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone : it is to the vigilant, 
the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were 
base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. 
There is no retreat but in submission and slavey ! Our chains are 
forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston ! The 
war is inevitable, and let it come ! I repeat, sir, let it come ! 

8. It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, 
Peace, peace ! but there is no peace. The war is actually begun ! 
The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the 
clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! 
Why stand we here idle ? "What is it that gentlemen wish ? What 
would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- 
chased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! 
I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me 
liberty or give me death ! 



Supposed Speech of James Otis. 

Mrs. L. M. Child. 

1. England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bul- 
rushes as fetter the step of Freedom, more proud and firm in this 
youthful land than where she treads the sequestered glens of Scotland, 
or crouches herself among the magnificent mountains of Switzerland. 
Arbitrary principles, like those against which we now contest, have 
cost one king his life, another his crown, and they may yet cost a third 
his most flourishing colonies. 

2. We are two millions ; one fifth fighting men. We are bold and 
vigorous, and we call no man master. To the nation from whom we 
are proud to derive our origin, we ever were, and we ever will be, 
ready to yield unforced assistance ; but it must not, and it never can 
be, extorted. 

3. Some have sneeringly asked, " Are the Americans too poor to 
pay a few pounds on stamped paper ? " No ! America, thanks to God 
and herself, is rich. But the right to take ten pounds implies the 
right to take a thousand ; and what must be the wealth that avarice, 
aided by power, cannot exhaust? True, the specter is now small; 
but the shadow he casts before him is huge enough to darken all this 
fair land. 

4. Others, in a sentimental style, talk of the immense debt of grati- 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 305 

i 

tude which we owe to England. And what is the amount of this 
debt ? "Why, truly, it is the same that the young lion owes to the 
dam, which has brought it forth on the solitude of the mountain, or 
left it amid the winds and storms of the desert. 

5. We plunged into the wave with the great charter of freedom in 
our teeth, because the fagot and the torch were behind us. We have 
waked this new world from its savage lethargy; forests have been 
prostrated in our path; towns and cities have grown up suddenly as 
the flowers of the tropics ; and the fires in our autumnal woods are 
scarcely more rapid than the increase of our wealth and population. 
And do we owe all this to the kind succor of the mother country ? 
No ! we owe it to the tyranny that drove us from her, to the pelting 
storms which invigorated our helpless infancy. 

6. But perhaps others will say, "We ask no money from your 
gratitude: we only demand that you should pay your own expenses." 
And who, I pray, is to judge of their necessity? Why, the king: 
and, with all due reverence to his sacred majesty, he understands the 
real wants of his distant subjects as little as he does the language of 
the Choctaws 1 Who is to judge concerning the frequency of these 
demands? The ministry. Who is to judge whether the money is 
properly expended? The cabinet behind the throne. In every in- 
stance those who take are to judge for those who pay. If this system 
is suffered to go into operation we shall have reason to esteem it a 
great privilege that rain and dew do not depend upon Parliament; 
otherwise, they would soon be taxed and dried. 

*7. But, thanks to God! there is freedom enough left upon earth to 
resist such monstrous injustice. The flame of liberty is extinguished 
in Greece and ifome, but the light of its glowing embers is still bright 
and strong on the shores of A merica. Actuated by its sacred influ- 
ence, we will resist unto death. But we will not countenance anarchy 
and misrule. The wrongs that a desperate community have heaped 
upon their enemies shall be amply and speedily repaired. Still, it 
may be well for some proud men to remember, that a fire is lighted in 
these colonies which one breath of their king may kindle into such a 
fury that the blood of all England cannot extinguish it. 

20 



306 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

i 
Rienzi's Address to the Romans. 

Miss Mitford, 

2. I come not here to talk. You know too well 
The story of our thraldom. "We are slaves! 
The bright sun rises to his course and lights 
A race of slaves ! He sets, and his last beams 
Fall on a slave; not such as, swept along 
By the fall tide of power, the conqueror led 
To crimson glory and undying fame, 
But base, ignoble slaves \ slaves to a horde 
Of petty tyrants, feudal despots, lords, 
Rich in some dozen paltry villages ; 
Strong in some hundred spearmen ; only great 
In that strange spell — a name. 

2. Each hour, dark fFaud, 

Or open rapine, or protected murder, 

Cry out against them. But this very day 

An honest man, my neighbor — there he stands — 

Was struck — struck like a dog by one who wore 

The badge of Ursini ; because, forsooth, 

He tossed not high his ready cap in air, 

Nor lifted up his voice in servile shouts 

At sight of that great ruffian ! Be we men, 

And suffer such dishonor? men, and wash not 

The stain away in blood ? Such shames are common : 

I have known deeper wrongs ; I, that speak to ye, 

I had a brother once — a gracious boy, 

Full of gentleness, of calmest hope, 

Of sweet and quiet joy : there was the look 

Of heaven upon his face, which limners give 

To the beloved disciple. 

3. How I loved 

That gracious boy I Younger by fifteen years, 

Brother at once, and son I He left my side, 

A summer bloom on his fair cheek, a smile 

Parting his innocent lips. In one short hour 

That pretty, harmless boy was slain ! I saw 

The corse, the mangled corse, and then I cried 

For vengeance ! Rouse, ye Romans I rouse, ye slaves ! 

Have ye brave sons ? Look in the next fierce brawl 



ORATORICAL STYLE. 307 

To see them die. Have ye fair daughters? Look 
To see them live, torn from your arms, distained, 
Dishonored ; and if ye dare call for justice, 
Be answered by the lash ! 

Tet this is Rome, 

That sat on her seven hills, and from her throne 

Of beauty ruled the world ! Tet we are Romans ! 

"Why, in that elder day, to be a Roman 

"Was greater than a king ! and once again — 

Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread 

Of either Brutus 1 once, again, I swear 

The eternal city shall be free ! 



308 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION, 



CHAPTER XII. 

ORATORICAL SUBLIME STYLE. 

Some selections partake of the commingled elements of 
two styles. 

The two following, and, in fact, all funeral orations, 
are of this class, containing the elements both of the 
Oratorical and Sublime Styles, and hence may be appro- 
priately classed under the Oratorical Sublime. 

Similar examples will frequently occur, but it has not 
been thought necessary to present them separately, as 
they are only combinations of styles already sufficiently 
discussed. 

Death of John Quincy Adams. 

L. & Holmes. 

1. Mr. Speaker, The mingled tones of sorrow, like the voice of 
many waters, have come unto us from a sister State — Massachusetts — 
weeping for her honored son. The State I have the honor in part to 
represent once endured, with yours, a common suffering, battled for a 
common cause, and rejoiced in a common triumph. Surely, then, it is 
meet that in this the day of your affliction we should mingle our griefs. 

2. When a great man falls the nation mourns, when a patriarch is 
removed the people weep. Ours, my associates, is no common be- 
reavement. The chain which linked our hearts with the gifted spirits 
of former times has been suddenly snapped. The lips from which 
flowed those living and glorious truths that our fathers uttered are 
closed in death. 

3. Yes, my friends, death has been among us. He has not entered 
the bumble cottage of some unknown, ignoble peasant ; he has 
knocked audibly at the palace of a nation. His footstep has been 
heard in the halls of State I He has cloven down his victim in the 
midst of the councils of a people. He has borne in triumph from 



ORATORICAL-SUBLIME STYLE. 309 

among you the gravest, wisest, most reverend head. Ah! he has 
taken him as a trophy who was once chief over many statesmen, 
adorned with virtue and learning and truth- he has borne at his 
chariot wheels a renowned one of the earth. 

4. How often have we crowded into that aisle, and clustered around 
that now vacant desk, to listen to the counsels of wisdom as they fell 
from the lips of the venerable sage, we can all remember, for it was 
but of yesterday. But what a change 3 How wondrous I how sud- 
den 1 'Tis like a vision of the night. That form which, we beheld 
but a few days since is now cold in death. 

5. But the last Sabbath, and in this hall, he worshiped with others. 
Now his spirit mingles with the noble army of martyrs, and the just 
made perfect in the eternal adoration of the living God. With him, 
f this is the end of earth," He sleeps the sleep that knows no 
waking. He is gone — and for ever. The sun that ushers in the 
mora of that next holy day, while it gilds the lofty dome of the cap- 
itol, shall rest with soft and mellow light upon the consecrated spot 
beneath whose turf forever lies the patriot father and the patriot sage. 



Death of Alexander Hamilton. 

Br. NoU. . 

1. A short time since and he who is the occasion of our sorrows 
was the ornament of his country. He stood on an eminence, and 
glory covered him. From that eminence he has fallen — suddenly, 
forever fallen. His intercourse with the living world is now ended ; 
and those who would hereafter find hirn must seek him in the grave. 
There, cold and lifeless, is the heart which just now was the seat of 
friendship. There, dim and sightless is the eye whose radiant and 
enlivening orb beamed with intelligence ; and there, closed forever, are 
those lips on whose persuasive accents we have so often and so lately 
hung with transport. 

2. From the darkness which rests upon his tomb there proceeds, 
methinks, a light in which it is clearly seen that those gaudy objects 
which men pursue are only phantoms. In this light how dimly 
shines the splendor of victory — how humble appears the majesty of 
grandeur! The bubble which seemed to have so much solidity has 
burst, and we again see that all below the sun is vanity. 

3. True, the funeral eulogy has been pronounced ; the sad and sol- 
emn procession has moved; the badge of mourning has already been 
decreed; and presently the sculptured marble will lift up its front, 



310 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

proud to perpetuate the name of Hamilton, and rehearse to the passing 
traveler his virtues. 

4. Just tributes of respect, and to the living useful ; but to him, 
moldering in his narrow and humble habitation, what are they ? How 
vain ! How unavailing ! 

5. Approach and behold, while I lift from his sepulcher its covering. 
Ye admirers of his greatness, ye emulous of his talents and his fame, 
approach and behold him now. How pale ! how silent ! No martial 
bands admire the adroitness of his movements ; no fascinated throng 
weep and melt and tremble at his eloquence. Amazing change ! A 
shroud I a coffin ! a narrow, subterraneous cabin ! This is all that 
now remains of Hamilton. And is this all that remains of him? 
During a life so transitory, what lasting monument, then, can our 
fondest hopes erect ? 

6. My brethren, we stand on the borders of an awful gulf, which is 
swallowing up all things human. And is there, amid this universal 
wreck, nothing stable, nothing abiding, nothing immortal, on which 
poor, frail, dying man can fasten ? 

7. Ask the hero, ask the statesman, whose wisdom you have been 
accustomed to revere, and he will tell you. He will tell you, did I 
say ? He has already told y.ou from his death-bed, and his illumined 
spirit still whispers from the heavens, with well-known eloquence, the 
solemn admonition : " Mortals, hastening to the tomb, and once the 
companions of my pilgrimage, take warning and avoid my errors; 
cultivate the virtues I have recommended ; choose the Saviour I have 
chosen. Live disinterestedly — live for immortality. And would you 
rescue any thing from final dissolution, lay it up in God." 



IMPASSIONED POETIC STYLE. 311 



CHAPTER XIII. 

IMPASSIONED POETIC STYLE. 

The Impassioned Poetic Style is appropriate for the de- 
livery of impassioned poetic thought and feeling, as ex- 
pressed not only in impassioned poetry, but also in the 
impassioned portions of speeches, orations and sermons. 

Hate op the Bowl. 

1. Go, feel what I have felt ; 

Go, bear what I have borne ; 
Sink 'neath the blow a father dealt, 

And the cold world's proud scorn: 
Then suffer on from year to year, 
Thy sole relief the scalding tear. 

2. Go, kneel as I have knelt; 

Implore, beseech and pray ; 
Strive the besotted heart to melt, 

The downward course to stay ; 
Be dashed with bitter curse aside, 
Your prayers burlesqued, your tears defied. 

3. Go weep as I have wept 

O'er a loved father's fall, 
See every promised blessing swept, 

Youth's sweetness turned to gall ; 
Life's fading flowers strewed all the way, 
That brought me up to woman's day. 

4. Go, see what I have seen ; 

Behold the strong man bow, 
"With gnashing teeth, lips bathed in blood, 

And cold and livid brow. 
Go catch his withering glance, and see 
There mirrored, his soul's misery. 



312 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION.' 

5. Go to thy mother's side, 

And* her crushed bosom cheer ; 
Thine own deep anguish hide ; 

"Wipe from her cheek the bitter tear ; 
Mark her wan cheek and pallid brow, 
The gray that streaks her dark hair now, 
Her failing frame and trembling limb ; 
And trace the ruin back to him 
"Whose plighted faith, in early youth, 
Promised eternal love and truth ; 
But who, forsworn, hath yielded up 
That promise to the cursed cup ; 
And led her down, through love and light, 
And all that made her prospects bright ; 
And chained her there, 'mid want and strife, 
That lowly thing, a drunkard's wife ; 
And stamped on childhood's brow so mild, 
That withering blight, a drunkard's child I 

6. Go, hear and feel and see and know 

All that my soul hath felt and known ; 
Then look upon the wine-cup's glow, 

See if its beauty can atone ; 
Think if its flavor you will try, 
"When all proclaim, 'Tis drink and die ! 

?. Tell me I hate the bowl — 

Hate is a feeble word : 
I loathe, abhor ; my very soul 

With strong disgust is stirred 
Whene'er I see, or hear, or tell 
Of the dark beverage of hell. 



The Ameeicak Flag. 

Joseph Rodman Drake. 
1. When Freedom, from her mountain height, 
Unfurled her standard to the air, 
She tore the azure robe of night, 

And set the stars of glory there ! 
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes 
The milky baldric of the skies, 



IMPASSIONED POETIC STYLE. 313 

And striped its pure celestial white 
With streakings of the morning light ; 
Then, from his mansion in the sun, 
She called her eagle-bearer down, 
And gave into his mighty hand 
The symbol of her chosen land ! 

2. Majestic monarch of the cloud ! 

Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, 
To hear the tempest trumpings loud, 
And see the lightning-lances driven, 

When strive the warriors of the storm, • 
And rolls the thunder-drum of heaven ! 
Child of the sun ! to thee 'tis given 

To guard the banner of the free, 
To hover in the sulphur smoke, 
To ward away the battle-stroke, 
And bid its blendings shine afar, 
Like rainbows on the cloud of war — « 

The harbingers of victory ! 

3. Flag of the brave! thy folds' shall fly, 
The sign of hope and triumph high. 
When speaks the signal trumpet tone, 
And the long line comes gleaming on — 
Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, 
Has dimmed the glistening bayonet — 
Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn 
To where thy sky-born glories burn ; 
And, as his springing steps advance, 
Catch war and vengeance from the glance ! 
And when the cannon-mouthings loud 
Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud, 
And gory sabers rise and fall, 

Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall ; 
Then shall thy meteor glances glow, 

And cowering foes shall sink beneath 
Each gallant arm that strikes below 

That lovely messenger of death. 

4. Elag of the seas ! on ocean wave 
Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave, 
When Death, careering on the gale, 
Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, 



314 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

And frighted waves rush wildly back, 
Before the broadside's reeling rack; 
Each dying wanderer of the sea 
Shall look at once to heaven and thee, 
And smile to see thy splendors fly, 
In triumph o'er his closing eye. 

5. Flag of the free heart's hope and home, 

By angel hands to valor given ! 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven. 
For ever float that standard sheet ! 

"Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ? 



The Rescue op Chicago. 

• E. M. Look. 

I saw the city's terror, 

I heard the city's cry, 
As a flame leaped out of her bosom 

Up, up to the brazen sky ! 
And wilder rose the tumult, 

And thicker the tidings came — 
Chicago, queen of the cities, 

Is a rolling sea of flame ! 

Yet higher rose the fury, 

And louder the surges raved, 
(Thousands were saved but to suffer, 

And hundreds never were saved,) 
Till out of the awful burning 

A flash of lightning went, 
As across to fair Saint Louis 

The prayer for succor was sent. 

God bless thee, true Saint Louis 1 
So worthy thy royal name — 

Back, back on the wing of the lightning 
Thy answer of rescue came; 



IMPASSIONED POETIC. 315 

But, alas ! it could not enter 

Through the horrible flame and heat, 
For the fire had conquered the lightning, 

And sat in the thunderer's seat ! 

God bless thee again, Saint Louis ! 

For resting never then ; 
Thou calledst to all the cities 

By lightning and steam and pen : 
" Ho, ho, ye hundred sisters, 

Stand forth in your bravest might ! 
Our sister in flame is falling, 

Her children are dying to-night! " 

And through the mighty Eepublic 

Thy summons went rolling on, 
Till it rippled the seas of the tropics, 

And ruffled the Oregon ; 
The distant G-olden City 

Called through her golden gates, 
And quickly rung the answer 

From the City of the Straits ; 

And the cities that sit in splendor 

Along the Atlantic sea, 
Replying, called to the dwellers 

Where the proud magnolias be. 
From slumber the army started 

At the far-resounding call, 
11 Food for a hundred thousand, 

And clothing and tents for all." 

I heard through the next night's darkness 

The trains go thundering by, 
Till they stood where the fated city 

Shone red in the brazen sky. 
The rich gave their abundance, 

The poor their willing hands ; . 
There was wine from all the vineyards, 

There was corn from all the lands. 

At daybreak over the prairies 

Re-echoed the gladsome cry — 
" Ho, look unto us, ye thousands, 

Te shall not hunger nor die ! " 



316 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Their weeping was all the answer 
That the famishing throng could give 

To the million voices calling : 
" Look unto us, and live ! " 

Destruction wasted the city, 

But the burning curse that came 
Enkindled in all the people 

Sweet charity's holy flame. 
Then still to our God be glory ! 

I bless him, through my tears, 
That I live in the grandest nation 

That hath stood in all the years. 



Sheeidan's Ride. 

T. Buchanan Bead. 



1. Up from the south at break of day, 
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay, 
The affrighted air with a shudder bore, 

Like a herald in haste, to the chieftain's door, 
The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, 
Telling the battle was on once more, 
And Sheridan twenty miles away. 

2. And wider still those billows of war 
Thundered along the horizon's bar; 
And louder yet into "Winchester rolled 
The roar of that red sea uncontrolled, 
Making the blood of the listener cold, 

As he thought of the stake in that fiery fray, 
And Sheridan twenty miles away. 

3. But there is a road from Winchester town, 
A good, broad highway leading down : 

And there through the flush of the morning light, 

A -steed as black as the steeds of night 

Was seen to pass, as. with eagle flight, 

As if he knew the terrible need ; 

He stretched away with his utmost speed ; 

Hills rose and fell ; but his heart was gay, 

With Sheridan fifteen miles away. 



IMPASSIONED POETIC. 317 

4. Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south, 
The dust, like smoke from the cannon's mouth ; 

Or the trail of a comet, sweeping faster and faster, 

Foreboding to traitors the doom of diaster. 

The heart of the steed, and the heart of the master 

"Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls, 

Impatient to be where the battle-field calls ; 

Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play, 

"With Sheridan only ten miles away. 

5. Under his spurning feet, the road 
Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed, 
And the landscape sped away behind 
Like an ocean flying before the wind, 

And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, 
Swept on, with his wild eye full of fire. 
But, lo ! he is nearing his heart's desire : 
He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, 
"With Sheridan only five miles away. 

i. The first that the General saw were the groups 
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops ; 
What was done ? what to do ? a glance told him both, 
Then striking his spurs, with a terrible oath, 
He dashed down the line, 'mid a storm of huzzas, 
And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because 
The sight of the master compelled it to pause. 
"With foam and with dust the black charger was gray ; 
By the flash of his eye, and his red nostril's play, 
He seemed to the whole great army to say, 
"I have brought you Sheridan all the way 
From "Winchester, down to save the day." 

7. Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! 
Hurrah ! hurrah for horse and man ! 
And when their statues are placed on high 
Under the dome of the Union sky, 
The American soldiers' Temple of Fame, 
There with the glorious General's name 
Let it be said in letters both bold and bright: 
" Here is the steed that saved the day 
By carrying Sheridan into the fight, 
From "Winchester — twenty miles away ! " 



318 SCIENCE OF* ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SHOUTING STYLE. 

The Shouting Style is chiefly used in the utterance of 
those words and phrases which are employed in calling 
and commanding. But few selections will require the 
Shouting Style throughout. 

In the extracts given, with the exception of Tell's 
Address to the Alps, only those words printed in italics 
require the Shouting Style. 

From the Chaege of the Light Brigade. 

Tennyson. 

1. Half a league, half a league, 

Half a league onward, 
All in the valley of death 

Rode the six hundred. 
" Forward, the Light Brigade ! " 
" Charge for the guns,'" he said. 
Into the valley of death 

Rode the six hundred. 

2. " Forward the Light Brigade!" 
Was there a man dismayed ? 
Not though the soldier knew 

Some one had blundered. 
Theirs not to make reply, 
Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do and die. 
Into the valley of death 

Rode the six hundred. 



SHOUTING STYLE. 319 

Feom Maemion and Douglas. 

Scott. 

On the earl's cheek the flush of rage 
O'ercame the ashen hue of age ; 
Fierce he broke forth, " And darest thou, then, 
To beard the lion in his den — 

The Douglas in his hall ? 
And hop'st thou hence unscathed to go ? 
No, by Saint Bride of Bothwell, no ! 
Up drawbridge, grooms ! what, warder, ho I 

Let the portcullis fall" 



Feom Marco Bozzakis. 

Hallech. 

An hour passed on, the Turk awoke. 

That bright dream was his last. 
He woke to hear his sentries shriek, 
" To arms! they come ! the Greek ! the Greek! " 
He woke to die 'midst flame and smoke, 
And shout and groan and saber-stroke, 

And death-shots falling thick and fast 
As lightnings from the mountain cloud, 
And heard, with voice as trumpet loud, 

Bozzaris cheer his band : 
" Strike ! till the last armed foe expires ; 
Strike ! for your altars and your fires ; 
Strike I for the green graves of your sires ; 

God, and your native land ! " 



Feom the Black Regiment. 

Boker. 

1. " Now" the flag-sergeant cried, 
" Though death and hell betide, 
Let the whole nation see 
If loe are fit to be 



320 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

Free in this land; or hound 
Down like the whining hound, 
Bound with red stripes of pain 
In our cold chains again ! " 
what a shout there went 
From the black regiment ! 

2. " Charge ! " tramp and drum awoke, 
Onward the bondmen broke : 
Bayonet and saber-stroke 

Vainly opposed their rush. 
Through the wild battle's crush, 
"With but one thought aflush, 
Driving their lords like chaff, 
In the guns' mouths they laugh ; 
Or at the slippery brands 
Leaping with open hands, 
Down they tear man and horse, 
Down in their awful course ; 
Trampling with bloody heel 
Over the crashing steel, 
All their eyes forward bent, 
Eushed the black regiment. 

3. " Freedom ! " their battle-cry, 
" Freedom ! or learn to die ! " 
Ah ! and they meant the word, 
Not as with us 'tis heard, 
Not a mere party shout : 
They gave their spirits out ; 
Trusted the end to God, 

And on the gory sod 
Eolled in triumphant blood. 
Glad to strike one free blow, 
Whether for weal or woe ; 
Glad to breathe one free breath, 
Though on the lips of death, 
Praying — alas ! in vain — 
That they might fall again, 
So they could once more see 
That burst to liberty ! 
This was what "freedom" lent 
To the black regiment. 



SHOUTING STYLE. 321 

Tele's Addeess to the Alps. 

J. S. KnowUs. 

1. Te crags and peaks, I'm with, you once again I 
I hold to you the hands you first beheld, 
To show they still are free. Methinks I hear 
A spirit in your echoes answer me, 
And bid your tenant welcome to his home 
Again. sacred forms, how proud you look! 
How high you lift your heads into the sky 1 
How huge you are! how mighty and how free! 
Ye are things that tower, that shine, whose smile 
Makes glad, whose frown is terrible, whose forms, 
Robed or unrobed, do all the impress wear 
Of awe divine. Ye guards of liberty, 
I'm with you once again! I call to you 
With all my voice! I hold my hands to you, 
To show they still are free. I rush to you 
As though I could embrace you. 
21 



322 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



CHAPTER XV. 

VEHEMENT STYLE. 

The Vehement Style is appropriate for the expression of 
intense passion, anger, scorn, revenge, hate, etc. 

Catiline's Defiance. 

Croly. 

1. Conscript Fathers! 

I do not rise to waste the night in words ; 
Let that plebeian talk ; 'tis not my trade ; 
But here I stand for right — let him show proofs — 
For Roman right ; though none, it seems, dare stand 
To take their share with me. Ay, cluster there ! 
Cling to your master, judges, Romans, slaves ! 
His charge is false ; — I dare him to his proof. 
You have my answer. Let my actions speak ! 

2. But this I will avow, that I have scorned, 
And still do scorn, to hide my sense of wrong ! 
Who brands me on the forehead, breaks my sword, 
Or lays the bloody scourge upon my back, 
Wrongs me not half so much as he who shuts 
The gates of honor on me — turning out 

The Roman from his birthright ; and, for what ? 
To fling your offices to every slave ! 
Vipers, that creep where man disdains to climb, 
And, having wound their loathsome track to the top 
Of this huge, moldering monument of Rome, 
Hang hissing at the nobler man below ! 
Come, consecrated lictors, from your thrones ; 
Fling down your scepters ; take the rod and ax 
And make the murder as you make the law I 

3. Banished from Rome ! What's banished, but set free 
From daily contact with the things I loathe ? 

" Tried and convicted traitor ! " Who says this ? 
Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head ? 



VEHEMENT STYLE. 323 

Banish'd 1 I thank you for't. It breaks my chain ! 

I held some slack allegiance till this hour ; 

But now my sword's my own. Smile on, my lords I 

I scorn to count what feelings, withered hopes, 

Strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs, 

I have within my heart's hot cells shut up, 

To leave you in your lazy dignities. 

But here I stand and scoff you ! here, I fling 

Hatred and full defiance in your face ! 

Your consul's merciful — for this all thanks; 

He dares not touch a hair of Catiline I 

" Traitor ! " I go ; but I return. This— trial ? 

Here I devote your senate ! I've had wrongs 

To stir a fever in the blood of age, 

Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel. 

This day's the birth of sorrow I This hour's work 

"Will breed proscriptions ! Look to your hearths, my lords ! 

Eor there, henceforth, shall sit, for household gods, 

Shapes hot from Tartarus ! — all shames and crimes ! 

"Wan treachery, with his thirsty dagger drawn ; 

Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup ; 

Naked rebellion, with the torch and ax, 

Making his wild sport of your blazing thrones ; 

Till anarchy comes down on you like night, 

And massacre seals Rome's eternal grave! 

I go ; but not to leap the gulf alone. 

I go ; but, when I come, 'twill be the burst 

Of ocean in the earthquake — rolling back 

In swift and mountainous ruin. Eare you well I 

You build my funeral pile ; but your best blood 

Shall quench its flame ! Back, slaves ! I will return I 



The Seminole's Defiance. 

G. W. Patten. 

1. Blaze, with your serried columns ! I will not bend the knee ; 
The shackle ne'er again shall bind the arm which now is free ! 
I've mailed it with the thunder, when the tempest muttered low ; 
And where it falls, ye well may dread the lightning of its blow. 



324 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

I've scared you in the city ; I've scalped on the plain ; 

Go, count your chosen where they fell beneath my leaden rain I 

I scorn your proffered treaty ; the pale-face I defy ; 

Eevenge is stamped upon my spear, and "blood" my battle-cry I 

2. Some strike for hope of booty ; some to defend their all — 
I battle for the joy I have to see the white man fall. 

I love, among the wounded, to hear his dying moan, 

And catch, while chanting at his side, the music of his groan. 

You've trailed me through the forest ; you've tracked me o'er the 

stream ; 
And struggling through the everglade your bristling bayonets 

gleam. 
But I stand as should the warrior, with his rifle and his spear ; 
The scalp of vengeance still is red, and warns you — " Come not 

here ! " 

3. Think ye to find my homestead ? — I gave it to the fire, 
My tawny household do you seek ? — I am a childless sire. 

But, should you crave life's nourishment, enough I have, and good ; 
I live on hate — 'tis all my bread ; yet light is not my food. 
I loathe you with my bosom ! I scorn you with mine eye ! 
And I'll taunt you with my latest breath, and fight you till I die ! 
I ne'er will ask for quarter, and I ne'er will be your slave ; 
But I'll swim the sea of slaughter till I sink beneath the wave 1 



Spartacus to the Gladiators of Capua. 

E. Kellogg. 

1. Te call me chief; and ye do well to call him chief who, for twelve 
long years, has met upon the arena every shape of man or beast the 
broad empire of Borne could furnish, and who never yet lowered his 
arm. If there be one among you who can say, that ever, in public 
fight or private brawl, my actions did belie my tongue, let him stand 
forth and say it. If there be three in all your company dare face me 
on the bloody sands, let them come on. And yet I was not always 
thus— a hired butcher, a savage chief of still more savage men ! 

2. My ancestors came from old Sparta, and settled among the vine- 
clad rocks and citron-groves of Cyrasella. My early life ran quiet as 
the brooks by which I sported ; and when, at noon, I gathered the 
sheep beneath the shade, and played upon the shepherd's flute, there 



VINDICTIVE STYLE. 325 

was a friend, the son of a neighbor, to join me in the pastime. We led 
our flocks to the same pasture, and partook together our rustic meal. 
3; One evening, after the sheep were folded, and we were all seated 
beneath the myrtle which shaded our cottage, my grandsire, an old 
man, was telling of Marathon and Leuctra; and how, in ancieut times, 
a little band of Spartans, in a defile of the mountains, had withstood 
a whole army. I did not then know what war was; but my cheeks 
burned, I knew not why, and I clasped the knees of that venerable 
man, until my mother, parting the hair from off my forehead, kissed 
my throbbing temples and bade me go to rest, and think no more of 
those old tales and savage wars. That very night the Romans landed 
on our coast. I saw the breast that had nourished me trampled by 
the hoof of the war-horse ; the bleeding body of my father flung amid 
the blazing rafters of our dwelling ! 

4. To-day I killed a man in the arena; and, when I broke his 
helmet-clasps, behold! he was my friend. He knew me, smiled 
faintly, gasped, and died — the same sweet smile upon his lips that 
I had marked when, in adventurous boyhood, we scaled the lofty 
cliff to pluck the first ripe grapes, and bear them home in childish 
triumph ! I told the praetor that the dead man had been my friend, 
generous and brave ; and I begged that I might bear away the body 
and burn it on a funeral pile, and mourn over its ashes. Ay, upon 
my knees, amid the dust and blood of the arena, I begged that poor 
boon, while all the assembled maids and matrons, and the holy virgins 
they call Vestals, and the rabble, shouted in derision, deeming it rare 
sport, forsooth, to see Rome's fiercest gladiator turn pale and tremble 
at sight of that piece of bleeding clay ! And the praetor drew back as 
I were pollution, and sternly said, "Let the carrion rot; there are no 
noble men but Romans 1" And so, fellow-gladiators, must you, and 
so must I, die like dogs. 

5. O, Rome! Rome! thou hast been a tender nurse to me. Ay, 
thou hast given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd-lad, who never 
knew a harsher tone than a flute note, muscles of iron and a heart of 
flint ; taught him to drive the sword through plaited mail and links 
of rugged brass, and warm it in the marrow of his foe ; to gaze into 
the glaring eye-balls of the fierce Numidian lion, even as a boy upon 
a laughing girl! And he shall pay thee back, until the yellow 
Tiber is red as frothing wine, and in its deepest ooze life-blood lies 
curdled ! 

6. Ye stand here now like giants, as ye are ! The strength of brass 
is in your toughened sinews; but to-morrow some Roman Adonis, 
breathing sweet perfume from his curly locks, shall with his lily 



326 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

fingers pat your red brawn, and bet his sesterces upon your blood. 
Hark ! hear ye yon lion roaring in his den ? 'Tis three days since he 
tasted flesh ; but to-morrow he shall break his fast, upon yours, and a 
dainty meal for him ye will be ! 

*l. If ye are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen, waiting for the 
butcher's knife ! If ye are men — follow me ! Strike down yon guard, 
gain the mountain passes, and there do bloody work, as did your sires 
at old Thermopylae! Is Sparta dead? Is the old Grecian spirit 
frozen in your veins, that you do crouch and cower like a belabored 
hound beneath his master's lash ? comrades ! warriors ! Thracians ! 
if we must fight, let us fight for ourselves ! If we must slaughter, let 
us slaughter our oppressors ! If we must die, let it be under the 
clear sky, by the bright waters, in noble, honorable battle I 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 327 



CHAPTER XVI. . 

DRAMATIC STYLE. 

The Dramatic is simply a combination of the pre- 
vious styles. The difficulty, in the delivery of selec- 
tions in the Dramatic Style, is in giving the sudden 
transition from one style to another, which so frequently 
occurs. 

The following analysis will sufficiently illustrate the 
combination of styles and the rapid transitions : 

From on Boaed the Cumberland, Maech 7, 1862. 

George S. Bok&r. 

1. "Stand to your guns, men! " Morris cried; 

Small need to pass the word ; 
Our men at quarters ranged themselves 
Before the drum was heard. 

2. And then began the sailors' jests : 

"What thing is that, I say? " 
"A 'long- shore meeting-house, adrift, 
Is standing down the bay ! " 

3. A frown came over Morris' face ; 

The strange, dark craft he knew : 
" That is the iron Merrimac, 
Manned by a rebel crew." 

In the above extract, " Stand to your guns, men ! " 
should be given in the Shouting Style ; " Morris cried," 
changes to the Didactic Style ; " Small need to pass the 
word," etc., should be given in the Grave Style; "And 
then began the sailor's jests," requires the Lively Style ; 



328 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

while " What thing is that, I say ? " etc., can only be 
appropriately given in the* Gay or Joyous Style. 

"A frown came over Morris' face," etc., requires the 
Grave Style, while "That is the iron Merrimac," etc., 
will require the Oratorical Style. 

Thus, it' will be seen, there is a constant change of 
style with almost every line. 

An analysis of any dramatic selection will disclose a 
similar combination of styles. No one should attempt 
to read or speak a selection of the Dramatic Style with- 
out first carefully analyzing it, not merely to compre- 
hend clearly the thought, but to discover the various 
styles of utterance it will require. It cannot be too 
earnestly impressed upon the mind of the pupil that the 
comprehension of the sentiment does not imply the ap- 
propriate vocal delivery. 

Abou Ben-Adhem. 

Leigh Ewrvt. 

1. Abou Ben-Adhem (may his tribe increase !) 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw, within the moonlight in bis room, 
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 

An angel, writing in a book of gold. 
Exceeding peace had made Ben-Adhem bold ; ' 
And to the presence in the room he said, 
"What writest thou ? " The vision raised its head, 
And, with a look made all of sweet accord, 
Answered, " The names of those who love the Lord." 
" And is mine one ? " said Abou. " Nay, not so," 
Eeplied the angel. Abou spake more low, 
But cheerily still, and said, " I pray thee, then, 
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men." 

2. The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night 
It came again, with a great wakening light, 

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed, 
And lo, Ben-Adhem's name led all the rest. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 329 

Leap for Life. 

Geo. P. Merris. 

1. Old Ironsides at anchor lay 

In the harbor of Mahon ; 
A dead calm rested on the bay, 

And the winds to sleep had gone ; 9 

"When little Jack, the captain's son, 

With gallant hardihood, 
Climbed shroud and spar, and then upon 

The main truck rose and stood. 

2. A shudder ran through every vein, 

All eyes were turned on high; 
There stood the boy, with dizzy brain, 

Between the sea and sky. 
No hold had he above, below; 

Alone he stood in air ; 
At that far height none dared to go ; 

No aid could reach him there. 

3. We gazed, but not a man could speak ; 

With horror all aghast ; 
In groups, with pallid brow and cheek, 

We watched the quivering mast. 
The atmosphere grew thick and hot, 

And of a lurid hue, 
As, riveted unto the spot, 

Stood officers and crew. 

4. The father came on deck — he gasped, 

"0 God! thy will be done!" 
Then suddenly a rifle grasped, 

And aimed it at his son. 
" Jump 1 far out, boy, into the wave, 

Jump, or I fire ! " he said ; 
" This chance alone your life can save, 

Jump ! jump ! " The boy obeyed. 

5. He sunk, he rose^ he lived, he moved ; 

He for the ship struck out ; 
On board we hailed the lad beloved 
With many a manly shout. 



330 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

His" father drew, with silent joy, 
Those wet arms round his neck, 

And folded to his heart the boy, 
Then fainted on the deck. 



Lord Ullin's Daughter. 

Campbell. 

1. A chieftain to the Highlands bound, 

Cries, " Boatman, do not tarry'! 
And I'll give thee a silver pound 
To row us o'er the ferry." 

2. " Now, who be ye would cross Loch-Gyle, 

This dark and stormy water ? " 
" I'm the chief of Ulva's isle, 
And this Lord UUin's daughter. 

3. "And fast before her father's men, 

Three days we've fled together, 
For should he find us in the glen, 
My blood would stain the heather. 

4. " His horsemen hard behind us ride ; 

Should they our. steps discover, 
Then who will cheer my bonny bride 
When they have slain her lover ? " 

5. Out spoke the hardy Highland wight, 

" I'll go, my chief — I'm ready: 
It is not for your silver bright, 
But for your winsome lady : 

6. "And, by my word, the bonny bird 

In danger, shall not tarry ; 
So, though the waves are raging white, 
I'll row you o'er the ferry." 

1. By this the storm grew loud apace, 
The water-wraith was shrieking ; 
And, in the scowl of heaven, each face 
Grew dark as they were speaking. 



DKAMATIC STYLE. 331 

8. But still, as wilder grew the wind, 

And as the night grew drearer, 
Adown the glen rode armed men, 
Their trampling sounded nearer. 

9. " haste thee, haste ! " the lady cries, 

" Though tempests round us gather, 
I'll meet the raging of the skies, 
But not an angry father." 

10. The boat has left the stormy land, 

A stormy sea before her, 
"When, 0, too strong for human hand, 
The tempest gathered o'er her. 

11. And while they rowed amid the roar 

Of waters fast prevailing, 
Lord Ullin reached that fatal shore, 
His wrath was changed to wailing. 

12. For, sore dismayed, through storm and shade, 

His child he did discover ; 
One lovely arm she stretched for aid, 
And one was round her lover. 

13. "Come back! come backl " he cried in grief, 

"Across this stormy water, 
And I'll forgive your Highland chief: 
My daughter ! 0, my daughter ! " 

14. 'Twas vain : the loud waves lashed the shore, 

Return or aid preventing : 
The waters wild went o'er his child, 
And he was left lamenting. 



John Burns of Gettysburg. 

F. Bret Harte. 

1. Have you heard the story the gossips tell 

Of John Burns of Gettysburg ? No ? Ah, well ! 
Brief is the glory that hero earns, 
Briefer the story of poor John Burns ; 



332 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

He was the fellow who won renown — 

The only man who didn't back down 

When the rebels rode through his native town ; 

But held his own in the fight next day, 

When all his townsfolk ran away. 

That was in July, sixty-three, 

The very day that General Lee, 

The flower of Southern chivalry, 

Baffled and beaten, backward reeled 

From a stubborn Meade and a barren field. 

2. I might tell how, but the day before, 
John Burns stood at his cottage-door, 
Looking down the village street, 

Where, in the shade of his peaceful vine, 
He heard the low of his gathered kine, 
And felt their breath with incense sweet ; 
Or, I might say, when the sunset burned 
The old farm gable, he thought it turned 
The milk that fell in a babbling flood 
Into the milk-pail, red as blood ; 
Or, how he fancied the hum of bees 
Were bullets buzzing among the trees. 
But all such fanciful thoughts as these 
Were strange to a practical man like Burns, 
Who minded only his own concerns, 
Troubled no more by fancies fine 
Than one of his calm-eyed, long-tailed kine — 
Quite old-fashioned, and matter-of-fact, 
Slow to argue, but quick to act. 
That was the reason, as some folks say, 
He fought so well on that terrible day. 

3. And it was terrible. On the right 
Raged for hours the heavy fight, 
Thundered the battery's double bass — 
Difficult music for men to face ; 

While on the left — where now the graves 

Undulate like the living waves 

That all the day unceasing swept 

Up to the pits the rebels kept — 

Round shot plowed the upland glades, - ■ 

Sown with bullets, reaped with blades ; 






DKAMATIC STYLE. 333 

Shattered fences here and there 

Tossed their splinters in the air ; 

The very trees were stripped and bare ; 

The barns that once held yellow grain 

Were heaped with harvests of the slain ; 

The cattle bellowed on the plain, 

The turkeys screamed with might and main, 

And brooding barn-fowl left their rest 

"With strange shells bursting in each nest. 

4. Just where the tide of battle turns, 
Erect and lonely stood old John Burns. 

5. How do you think the man was dressed ? 
He wore an ancient, long buff vest, 
Yellow as saffron, but his best ; 

And buttoned over his manly breast 
Was a bright blue coat with a rolling collar, 
And large gilt buttons — size of a dollar — 
With tails that country-folk called " swaller." 
He wore a broad-brimmed, bell-crowned hat, 
White as the locks on which it sat. 
Never had such a sight been seen 
For forty years on the village-green, 
Since old John Burns was a country beau, 
And went to the " quilting " long ago. 

6. Close at his elbows all that day 
Veterans of the Peninsula, 
Sunburnt and bearded, charged away, 
And striplings, downy of lip and chin, 
Clerks that the Home G-uard mustered in, 
Glanced as they passed at the hat he wore, 
Then at the rifle his right hand bore ; 

And hailed him from out their youthful lore, 
With scraps of a slangy repertoire : 
" How are you, White Hat ? " " Put her through ! " 
" Your head's level I " and, " Bully for you ! " 
Called him " Daddy," and begged he'd disclose 
The name of the tailor who made his clothes, 
And what was the value he set on those ; 
While Burns, unmindful of jeer and scoff, 
Stood there picking the rebels off — 



334 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

With his long, brown rifle and bell-crown hat, 
And the swallow-tails they were laughing at. 

7. 'Twas but a moment, for that respect 

Which clothes all courage their voices checked ; 

And something the wildest could understand, 

Spake in the old man's strong right hand, 

And his corded throat, and the lurking frown 

Of his eyebrows under his old-bell crown ; 

Until, as they gazed, there crept an awe 

Through the ranks in whispers, and some men saw, 

In the antique vestments and long white hair, 

The Past of the Nation in battle there. 

And some of the soldiers since declare 

That the gleam of his old white hat afar, 

Like the crested plume of the brave Navarre, 

That day was their oriflamme of war. 

Thus raged the battle. You know the rest ; 

How the rebels, beaten, and backward pressed, 

Broke at the final charge and ran. 

At which John Burns, a practical man, 

Shouldered his rifle, unbent his brows, 

And then went back to his bees and cows. 

8. This is the story of old John Burns ; 
This is the moral the reader learns : 

In fighting the battle the question's whether 
You'll show a hat that's white, or a feather ? 



Poor Little Jim. 

1. The cottage was a thatched one, the outside old and mean, 
But all within that little cot was wondrous neat and clean ; 
The night was dark and stormy, the wind was howling wild, 
As a patient mother sat beside the death -bed of her child: 
A little worn-out creature, his once bright eyes grown dim : 
It was a collier's wife and child, they called him little Jim. 

2. And ! to see the briny tears fast hurrying down her cheek, 
As she offered up the prayer, in thought, she was afraid to speak, 
Lest she might waken one she loved far better than her life ; 
Eor she had all a mother's heart, had that poor collier's wife. 
With hands uplifted, see, she kneels beside the sufferer's bed, 
And prays that He would spare her boy, and take herself instead. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 335 

3. She gets her answer from the child : soft fall the words from him, 
"Mother, the angels do so smile, and beckon little Jim. 

I have no pain, dear mother, now ; but ! I am so dry, 
Just moisten poor Jim's lips again, and, mother, don't you cry." 
With gentle, trembling haste she held the liquid to his lip ; 
He smiled to thank her as he took each little, tiny sip. 

4. " Tell father, when he comes from work, I said good-night to him, 
And, mother, now I'll go to sleep." Alas ! poor little Jim ! 
She knew that he was dying ; that the child she loved so dear 
Had uttered the last words that she might ever hope to hear : 
The cottage door is opened, the collier's step is heard, 

The father and the mother meet, yet neither speak a word. 

5. He felt that all was over, he knew his child was dead ; 

He took the candle in his hand and walked toward the bed ; 
His quivering lips gave token of the grief he'd fain conceal, 
And see, his wife has joined him — the stricken couple kneel : 
With hearts bowed down by sadness, they humbly ask of Him, 
In heaven once more to meet again their own poor little Jim. 



The Gambler's Wife. 

Coate8. 

1. Dark is the night I how dark — no light — no fire ! 
Cold, on the hearth, the last faint sparks expire ! 
Shivering she watches by the cradle side 

For him who pledged her love — last year a bride I 

2. "Hark I 'tis his footstep ! No — 'tis past; 'tis gone: 
Tick ! — Tick ! — How wearily the time crawls on ! 
Why should he leave me thus ? He once was kind 1 
And I believed 'twould last — how mad ! — how blind ! 

3. "Rest thee, my babe! — rest on! — 'tis hunger's cry! 
Sleep ! — for there is no food ! the fount is dry ! 
Famine and cold their wearying work have done, 

My heart must break ! — and thou ! " The clock strikes one. 

4. " Hush ! 'tis the dice-box ! Yes, he's there, he's there, 
For this ! for this he leaves me to despair ! 

Leaves love! leaves truth! his wife! his child I for what? 
The wanton's smile — the villain — and the sot ! 



336 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

5. " Yet I'll not curse him ! No ! 'tis all in vain! 
'Tis long to wait, but sure he'll come again ! 
And I could starve and bless him, but for you, 
My child! — his child ! — fiend ! " The clock strikes two. 

6.' " Hark ! how the sign-board creaks ! The blast howls by ! 
Moan! moan! A dirge swells through the cloudy skyl 
Ha ! 'tis his knock ! he comes ! — he comes once more ! 
'Tis but the lattice flaps ! Thy hope is o'er. 

7. " Can he desert me thus ? He knows I stay 
Night after night in loneliness to pray 

For his return — and yet he sees no tear ! 
No ! no ! it cannot be. He will be here. 

8. " Nestle more closely, dear one, to my heart ! 
Thou'rt cold ! thou'rt freezing ! But we will not part. 
Husband ! — I die ! — Father ! — It is not he ! 

God ! protect my child ! " The clock strikes three. 

9. They're gone ! they're gone ! the glimmering spark hath fled ! 
The wife and child are numbered with the dead ! 

On the cold hearth, out-stretched in solemn rest, 
The child lies frozen on its mother's breast! 
The gambler came at last — but all was o'er — 
Dead silence reigned around — The clock struck four I 



The Beautiful Snow. 

James W. Watson. 

1. the snow, the beautiful snow ! 
Filling the sky and earth below ! 
Over the house-tops, over the street, 
Over the heads of the people you meet, 
Dancing, 
. Flirting, 

Skimming along; 
Beautiful snow ! it can do no wrong ; 
Flying to kiss a fair lady's cheek, 
Clinging to lips in a frolicsome freak, 
Beautiful snow from the heaven above, 
Pure as an angel, but fickle as love ! 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 337 

2. O the snow, the beautiful snow ! 

How the flakes gather and laugh as they go ! 
Whirling about in their maddening fun 
They play in their glee with every one. 
Chasing, 

Laughing, 

Hurrying by, 
It lights on the face and it sparkles the eye ; 
And even the dogs, with a bark and a bound, 
Snap at the crystals that eddy around ; 
The town is alive and its heart in a glow, 
To welcome the coming of beautiful snow! 

3. How the wild crowd goes swaying along, 
Hailing each other with humor and song I 
How the gay sledges, like meteors flash by, 
Bright for a moment, then lost to the eye — 

Ringing, 

Swinging, 

Dashing they go, 
Over the crust of the beautiful snowl 
Snow so pure when it falls from the sky, 
To be trampled in mud by the crowd rushing by; 
To be trampled and tracked by the thousands of feet, 
Till it blends with the filth in the horrible street 



Once I was pure as the snow — but I fell 1 
Fell, like the snow-flakes, from heaven to hell ; 
Fell to be trampled as filth in the street ; 
Fell to be scoffed, to be spit on and beat; 
Pleading, 

Cursing, 

Dreading to die, 
Selling my soul to whoever would buy; 
Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread, 
Hating the living and fearing the dead; 
Merciful GJ-od ! have I fallen so low ? 
And yet I was once like the beautiful snow. 



Once I was fair as the beautiful snow, 

"With an eye like its crystal, a heart like its glow; 

22 



838 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Once I was loved for my innocent grace, 
Mattered and sought for the charms of my face ! 
Father, 

Mother, 

Sisters, all, 
God and myself, I have lost by my fall ; 
And the veriest wretch that goes shivering by, 
Will make a wide swoop lest I wander too nigh ; 
For all that is on or about me I know 
There is nothing that's pure but the beautiful snow. 

6. How strange it should be' that this beautiful snow 
Should fall on a sinner with nowhere to go ! 
How strange it should be when the night comes again, 
If the snow and the ice strike my desperate brain ; 
Fainting, 

Freezing, 

Dying alone, 
Too wicked for prayer, too weak for my moan 
To be heard in the crash of the crazy town, 
Gone mad in the joy of the snow coming down, 
To lie and to die in my terrible woe, 
"With a bed and a shroud of the beautiful snow I 



Maud Muller. 

J. G. WhitUer. 



Maud Muller, on a summer's day, 
Eaked the meadow sweet with hay. 

Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth 
Of simple beauty and rustic health. 

Singing, she wrought, and her merry glee 
The mock-bird echoed from his tree. 

But, when she glanced to the far-off town, 
"White from its hill-slope looking down, 

The sweet song died, and a vague unrest 
And a nameless longing filled her breast — 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 339 

A wish, that she hardly dared to own, 
For something better than she had known. 

The Judge rode slowly down the lane, 
Smoothing his horse's chestnut mane, 

He drew his bridle in the shade 

Of the apple-trees, to greet the maid, 

And ask a draught from the spring that flowed 
Through the meadow across the road. 

She stooped where the cool spring bubbled up, 
And filled for him her small tin cup, 

And blushed as she gave it, looking down 
On her feet so bare, and her tattered gown. 

" Thanks ! " said the Judge, " a sweeter draught 
Prom a fairer hand was never quaffed." 

He spoke of the grass and flowers and trees, 
Of the singing birds and the humming bees : 

Then talked of the haying, and wondered whether 
The cloud in the west would bring foul weather. 

And Maud forgot her briar-torn gown, 
And her graceful ankles bare and brown ; 

And listened, while a pleased surprise 
Looked from her long-lashed hazel eyes. 

At last, like one who for delay 
Seeks a vain excuse, he rode away. 

Maud Muller looked and sighed : " Ah, me ! 
That I the Judge's bride might be I 

" He would dress me up in silks so fine, 
And praise and toast me at his wine. 

"My father should wear a broadcloth coat; 
My brother should sail a painted boat. 

" I'd dress my mother so grand and gay ; 
And the baby should have a new toy each day. 



340 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

" And I'd feed the hungry and clothe the poor, 
And all should bless me who left our door." 

The Judge looked back as he climbed the hill, 
And saw Maud Muller standing still. 

" A form more fair, a face more sweet, 
Ne'er hath it been my lot to meet. 

" And her modest answer and graceful air 
Show her wise and good as she is fair. 

" Would she were mine, and I to-day, 
Like her, a harvester of hay : 

" No doubtful balance of rights and wrongs, 
Nor weary lawyers with endless tongues, 

" But low of cattle and song of birds, 
And health and quiet and loving words." 

But he thought of his sisters proud and cold, 
And his mother vain of her rank and gold. 

So, closing his heart, the Judge rode on, 
And Maud was left in the field alone. 

But the lawyers smiled that afternoon, 
When he hummed in court an old love-tune ; 

And the young girl mused beside the well, 
Till the rain on the unraked clover fell. 

He wedded a wife of richest dower, 
Who lived for fashion, as he for power. 

Yet oft, in his marble hearth's bright glow, 
He watched a picture come and go ; 

And sweet Maud Muller's hazel eyes 
Looked out in their innocent surprise. 

Oft, when the wine in his glass was red, 
He longed for the wayside well instead ; 

And closed his eyes on his garnished rooms, 
To dream of meadows and clover-blooms. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 341 

And the praud man sighed, with a secret pain ; 
" Ah, that I were free again ! 

" Free as when I rode that day, 

Where the barefoot maiden raked her hay." 

She wedded a man unlearned and poor, 
And many children played round her door. 

But care and sorrow, and childbirth pain, 
Left their traces on heart and brain. 

And oft, when the summer sun shone hot 
On the new-mown hay in the meadow lot, 

And she heard the little spring brook fall 
Over the roadside, through the wall 

In the shade of the apple-tree again 
She saw a rider draw his rein. 

And, gazing down with timid grace, 
She felt his pleased eyes read her face, 

Sometimes her narrow kitchen walls 
Stretched away into stately halls ; 

The weary wheel to a spinnet turned, 
The tallow candle an astral burned, 

And for him who sat by the chimney log, 
Dozing and grumbling o'er pipe and mug, 

A manly form at her side she saw, 
And joy was duty and love was law. 

Then she took up her burden of life again, 
Saying only, ;i It might haye been." 

Alas for maiden, alas for Judge, 

For rich repiner and household drudge ! 

God pity them both ! and pity us all, 
Who vainly the dreams of youth recall. 

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, 

The saddest are these : " It might have been I " 



342 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Ah, well ! for us all some sweet hope lies 
Deeply buried from human eyes ; 

And in the hereafter angels may 
Roll the stone from its grave away ! 



John Maynard, the Heeo Pilot. 

Gough. 

John Maynard was well known in the Lake district as a God-fear- 
ing, honest, intelligent man. He was a pilot on a steamer from De- 
troit to Buffalo one summer afternoon. At that time those steamers 
seldom carried boats. Smoke was seen ascending from below, and 
the captain called out, " Simpson, go down and see what that smoke 
is." Simpson came up with his face pale as ashes, and said, " Cap- 
tain, the ship is on fire ! " Then, " Fire ! fire ! fire I fire on ship-board ! " 
All hands were called up. Buckets of water were dashed upon the 
fire, but in vain. There were large quantities of rosin and tar on 
board, and it was useless to attempt to save the ship. Passen- 
gers rushed forward and inquired of the pilot, " How far are we from 
Buffalo?" "Seven miles." "How long before we reach it?" 
" Three quarters of an hour at our present rate of steam." " Is there 
any danger ? " " Danger here — see the smoke bursting out ! Go for- 
ward, if you would save your lives 1 " Passengers and crew, men, 
women and children crowded the forward part of the ship. John 
Maynard stood at the helm. The flames burst forth in a sheet of fire, 
clouds of smoke arose ; the captain cried out through his trumpet, 
"John Maynard." "Ay, ay, sir." "Are you at the helm?" "Ay, 
ay, sir." " How does she head ? " " Southeast by east, sir." 
"Head her southeast and run her on shore." Nearer, nearer, yet 
nearer she approached the shore. Again the captain cried out, 
" John Maynard." The response came feebly, " Ay, ay, sir." " Can 
you hold on five minutes longer, John ? " " By God's help I can." 
The old man's hair was scorched from the scalp; one hand disabled, 
his knee upon the stanchion, and his teeth set, with his other hand 
upon the wheel, he stood firm as a rock. He beached the ship — 
every man, woman and child was saved, as John Maynard dropped, 
and his spirit took its flight to his God. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 343 

The Black Regiment. 

POET HTTDSON. MAY 27, 1868. 

G. 3. Bolcer. 

1. Dark as (he clouds of even, 
Ranked in the western heaven, 
Waiting the breath that lifts 
All the dread mass, and drifts 
Tempest and falling brand 
Over a ruined land 5 - 

So still and orderly, 
Arm to arm, knee to knee, 
"Waiting the great event, 
Stands the black regiment, 

2. Down the long dusky line 
Teeth gleam and eyeballs shine ,• 
And the bright bayonet, 
Bristling and firmly set, 
Flashed with a purpose grand, 
Long ere the sharp command 
Of the fierce rolling drum 
Told them their time had come, 
Told them that work was sent 
For the black regiment. 

3. "Now," the flag-sergeant cried, 
" Though death and hell betide, 
Let the whole nation see 

If we are fit to be 

Free in this land- or bound 

Down, like the whining hound — 

Bound with red stripes of pain 

In our old chains again ! " 

what a shout there went 

From the black regiment I 

4. " Charge 1 " Trump and drum awoke, 
Onward the bondmen broke ; 
Bayonet and saber- stroke 

Vainly opposed their rush. 
Through the wild battle's crush, 
With but one thought aflush, 






344 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

Driving their lords like chaff. 
In the guns' mouths they laugh; 
Or at the slippery brands 
Leaping with open hands, 
Down they tear man and horse, 
Down in their awful course ; 
Trampling with bloody heel 
Over the crashing steel, 
All their eyes forward bent, 
Rushed the black regiment. 



5. " Freedom ! " their battle-cry, 
" Freedom ! or leave to die ! " 
Ah ! and they meant the word, 
Not as with us 'tis heard, 
Not a mere party shout : 
They gave their spirits out ; 
Trusting the end to God, 
And on the gory sod 

Soiled in triumphant blood. 
Glad to strike one free blow, 
"Whether for weal or woe ; 
Glad to breathe one free breath, 
Though on the lips of death. 
Praying — alas, in vain ! 
That they might fall again, 
So they could once more see 
That burst to liberty ! 
This was what "freedom" lent 
To the black regiment. 

6. Hundreds on hundreds fell ; 
But they are resting well ; 
Scourges and shackles strong 
Never shall do them wrong. 
O, to the living few, 
Soldiers, be just and true ! 
Hail them as comrades tried ; 
Fight with them side by side ; 
Never, in field or tent, 
Scorn the black regiment ! 



DEAMATIC STYLE. 345 

On the Shoees of Tennessee. 

Ethel L. Beers. 

1. " Move my arm-chair, faithful Pompey, 

In the sunshine, bright and strong, 
For this world is fading, Pompey, 

Massa wont be with you long ; 
And I fain would hear the south wind 

Bring once more the sound to me, 
Of the wavelets softly breaking 

On the shores of Tennessee. 

2. "Mournful though the ripples murmur, 

As they still the story tell, 
How no vessels float the banner 

That I've loved so long and well. 
I shall listen to their music, 

Dreaming that again I see 
Stars and Stripes on sloop and shallop 

Sailing up the Tennessee. 

3. " And, Pompey, while old Massa's waiting 

For Death's last dispatch to come, 
If that exiled starry banner 

Should come proudly sailing home, 
You shall greet it, slave no longer — 

Yoice and hand shall both be free 
That shout and point to Union colors 

On the waves of Tennessee." 

4. " Massa's berry kind to Pompey ; 

But ole darkey's happy here, 
"Where he's tended corn and cotton 

For dese many a long gone year. 
Over yonder Missis' sleeping — 

No one tends her grave like me. 
Mebbe she would miss the flowers 

She used to love in Tennessee. 

5. " Pears like she was watching Massa — 

If Pompey should beside him stay, 
Mebbe she'd remember better 
How for him she used to pray ; 



346 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Telling Mm that way up yonder 
White as snow his soul would be, 

If he served the Lord of heaven 
While he lived in Tennessee." 

6. Silently the tears were rolling 

Down the poor old dusky face, 
As he stepped behind his master, 

In his long accustomed place. 
Then a silence fell around them 

As they gazed on rock and tree 
Pictured in the placid waters 

Of the rolling Tennessee. 

7. Master, dreaming of the battle 

Where he fought by Marion's side, 
When he bid the haughty Tarlton 

Stoop his lordly crest of pride. 
Man, remembering how yon sleeper 

Once he held upon his knee, 
Ere she loved the gallant soldier, 

Ealph Vervair, of Tennessee. 

8. Still the south wind fondly lingers 

'Mid the veteran's silver hair ; 
Still the bondman close beside him 

Stands behind the old arm-chair. 
With his dark-hued hand uplifted, 

Shading eyes, he bends to see 
Where the woodland boldly jutting 

Turns aside the Tennessee. 

9. Thus he watches cloud-born shadows 

Glide from tree to mountain-crest, 
Softly creeping, ay and ever 

To the river's yielding breast. . 
Ha ! above the foliage yonder 

Something flutters wild and free ! 
" Massa ! massa ! halleluiah ! 

The flag's come back to Tennessee ! " 

10. "Pompey, hold me on your shoulder, 
Help me stand on foot once more, 
That I may salute the colors 
As they pass my cabin door. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 347 

Here's the paper signed that frees you, 

G-ive a freeman's shout with me — 
' G-od and Union ! ' be our watchword 

Evermore in Tennessee." 

11. Then the trembling voice grew fainter, 

And the limbs refused to stand ; 
One prayer to Jesus — and the soldier 

Glided to the better land. 
"When the flag went down the river 

Man and master both were free, 
"While the ring-dove's note was mingled 

With the rippling Tennessee. 



The Vagabonds. 

Trowbridge. 
"We are two travelers, Roger and I. 

Roger's my dog. Come here, you scamp ! 
Jump for the gentlemen — mind your eye ! 

Over the table — look out for the lamp ! 
The rogue is growing a little old ; 

Five years we've tramped through wind and weather, 
And slept out-doors when nights were cold, 

And ate and drank — and starved — together. 

"We've learned what comfort is, I tell you ! 

A bed on the floor, a bit of rosin, 
A fire to thaw our thumbs, (poor fellow ! 

The paw he holds up there's been frozen,) 
Plenty of catgut for my fiddle, 

(This out-door business is bad for strings,) 
Then a few nice buckwheats hot from the griddle, 

And Roger and I set up for kings ! 

No, thank ye, sir — I never drink; 

Roger and I are exceedingly moral — 
Aren't we, Roger ? See him wink ! 

"Well, something hot, then — we wont quarrel. 
He's thirsty, too — see him nod his head ! 

"What a pity, sir, that dogs can't talk ! 
He understands every word that's said — 

And he knows good milk from water-and-chalk. 



348 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

4. The truth is, sir, now I reflect, 

I've been so sadly given to grog, 
I wonder I've not lost the respect 

(Here's to you, sir !) even of my dog. 
But he sticks by, through thick and thin ; 

And this old coat, with its empty pockets, 
And rags that smell of tobacco and gin, 

He'll follow while he has eyes in his sockets. 

5. There isn't another creature living 

"Would do it, and prove, through every disaster, 
So fond, so faithful, and so forgiving, 

To such a miserable, thankless master ! 
No, sir ! see him wag his tail and grin ! 

By George ! it makes my old eyes water ! 
That is, there's something in this gin 

That chokes a fellow. But no matter ! 

6. "We'll have some music if you're willing, 

And Roger (hem ! what a plague a cough is, sir !) 
Shall march a little. Start, you villain ! 

Stand straight ! 'Bout face I Salute your officer ! 
Put up that paw ! Dress ! Take your rifle ! 

(Some dogs have arms, you see 1) Now hold your 
Cap while the gentlemen give a trifle 

To aid a poor old patriot soldier 1 

•j. March ! Halt ! Now show how the rebel shakes 

"When he stands up to hear his sentence. 
Now tell us how many drams it takes 

To honor a jolly new acquaintance. 
Five yelps — that's five ; he's mighty knowing ! 

The night's before us, fill the glasses ! 
Quick, sir ! I'm ill — my brain is going ! 

Some brandy — thank you — there — it passes ! 

8. "Why not reform ? That's easily said ; 

But I've gone through such wretched treatment, 
Sometimes forgetting the taste of bread, 

And scarce remembering what meat meant, 
That my poor stomach's past reform; 

And there are times when, mad with thinking, 
I'd sell out heaven for something warm 

To prop a horrible inward sinking. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 349 

9. Is there a way to forget to think ? 

At your age, sir, home, fortune, friends, 
A dear girl's love — but I took to drink ; — 

The same old story ; you know how it ends. 
If you could have seen these classic features — 

Tou needn't laugh, sir ; they were not then 
Such a burning libel on God's creatures : 

I was one of your handsome men ! 

10. If you had seen her, so fair and young, 

Whose head was happy on this breast I 
If you could have heard the songs I sung 

"When the wine went round, you wouldn't have guessed 
That ever I, sir, should be straying 

From door to door, with a fiddle and dog, 
Ragged and penniless, and playing 

To you to-night for a glass of grog ! 

11. She's married since — a parson's wife : 

'Twas better for her that we should part — 
Better the soberest, prosiest life 

Than a blasted home and a broken heart. 
I have seen her ? Once : I was weak and spent 

On a dusty road : a carriage stopped : 
But little she dreamed, as on she went, 

Who kissed the coin that her fingers dropped ! 

12. You've set me talking, sir; I'm sorry; 

It makes me wild to think of the change 1 
What do you care for a beggar's story ? 

Is it amusing ? you find it strange ? 
I had a mother so proud of me ! 

'Twas well she died before — Do you know 
If the happy spirits in heaven can see 

The ruin and wretchedness here below ? 

13. Another glass, and strong, to deaden 

This pain ; then Roger and I will start. 
I wonder, has he such a lumpish, leaden, 

Aching thing, in place of a heart ? 
He is sad sometimes, and would weep, if he could, 

No doubt, remembering things that were — 
A virtuous kennel, with plenty of food, 

And himself a sober, respectable cur. 



350 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

14. I'm better now ; that glass was warming. — 
You rascal ! limber your lazy feet ! 
We must be fiddling and performing 

For supper and bed, or starve in the street.— 
Not a very gay life to lead, you think ? 

But soon we shall go where lodgings are free, 
And the sleepers need neither. victuals nor drink; — 
The sooner, the better for Roger and me ! 



On Board the Cumberland. 

G. W. BoTcer— March 8, 1862. 

1. " Stand to your guns, men ! " Morris cried. 

Small need to pass the word ; 
Our men at quarters ranged themselves 
Before the drum was heard. 

2. And then began the sailors' jests : 

" What thing is that, I say ? " 
"A long-shore meeting-house adrift 
Is standing down the bay ! " 

3. A frown came over Morris' face ; 

The strange, dark craft he knew. 
"That is the iron Merrimac, 
Manned by a rebel crew. 

4. " So shot your guns, and point them straight ; 

Before this day goes by, 
We'll try of what her metal's made." 
A cheer was our reply. 

5. "Remember, boys, this flag of ours 

Has seldom left its place ; 
And when it falls, the deck it strikes 
Is covered with disgrace. 

6. "I ask but this: or sink or swim, 

Or live or nobly die, 
My last sight upon earth may be 
To see that ensign fly ! " 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 351 

7. Meanwhile the shapeless iron mass 

Came moving o'er the wave, 
As gloomy as a passing hearse, 
As silent as the grave. 

8. Her ports were closed ; from stem to stern 

No sign of life appeared. 
"We wondered, questioned, strained our eyes, 
Joked — every thing but feared. 

9. She reached our range. Our broadside ran, 

Our heavy pivots roared ; 
And shot and shell, a fire of hell, 
Against her sides we poured. 

10. God's mercy ! from her sloping roof 

The iron tempest glanced, 
As hail bounds from a cottage thatch, 
And round her leaped and danced ; 

11. Or when against her dusky hull 

"We struck a fair, full blow, 
The mighty, solid iron globes 
"Were crumbled up like snow. 

12. On, on, with fast increasing speed 

The silent monster came, 
Though all our starboard battery 
"Was one long line of flame. 

13. She heeded not ; no gun she fired ; 

Straight on our bow she bore ; 
Through riving plank and crashing frame 
Her furious way she tore. 

14. Alas ! our beautiful, keen bow, 

That in the fiercest blast 
So gently folded back the seas, 
They hardly felt we passed I 

15. Alas! alas! my Cumberland, 

That ne'er knew grief before, 
To be so gored, to feel so deep 
The tusk of that sea-boar ! 



352 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

16. Once more she backward drew a space, 
Once more our side she rent ; 
Then, in the wantonness of hate, 
Her broadside through us sent. 

IT. The dead and dying round us lay, 
But our foeman lay abeam ; 
Her open port-holes maddened us ; 
We fired with shout and scream. 

18. "We felt our vessel settling fast, 

"We knew our time was brief. 
11 Ho ! man the pumps ! " But those who worked, 
And fought not, wept with grief. 

19. ,: keep us but an hour afloat ! 

0, give us only time 
To mete unto yon rebel crew 
The measure of their crime ! " 

20. From captain down to powder-boy 

No hand was idle then ; 
Two soldiers, but by chance aboard, 
Fought on like sailor men. 

21. And when a gun's crew lost a hand, 

Some bold marine stepped out, 
And jerked his braided jacket off, 
And hauled the gun about. 

22. Our forward magazine was drowned; 

And up from the sick bay 
Crawled the wounded, red with blood, 
And round us gasping lay. 

23. Tes, cheering, calling us by name, 

Struggling with failing breath 
To keep their shipmates at their post 
Where glory strove with death. 

24. With decks afloat, and powder gone, 

The last broadside we gave 

From the gun's heated iron lips 

Burst out beneath the wave. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 353 

25. So sponges, rammers, and handspikea — 

As men-of-war's-men should — 
We placed within their proper racks, 
And at our quarters stood. 

26. " Up to the spar-deck 1 save yourselves ! " 

Cried Selfridge. " Up, my men I 
God grant that some of us may live 
To fight yon ship again I " 

27. "We turned — we did not like to go; 

Yet staying seemed but vain, 
Knee-deep in water ; so we left : 

Some swore, some groaned with pain. 

28. "We reached the deck. There Randall stood: 

"Another turn, men — so ! " 

Calmly he aimed his pivot gun : 

"Now, Tenny, let her gol " 

29. It did our sore hearts good to hear 

The song our pivot sang, 
As, rushing on from wave to wave, 
The whirling bomb-shell sprang. 

30. Brave Randall leaped upon the gun, 

And waved his cap in sport ; 
""Well done ! well aimed 1 I saw that shell 
Go through an open port." 

31. It was our last, our deadliest shot: 

The deck was overflown ; 
The poor ship staggered, lurched to port, 
And gave a living gr^oan. 

32. Down, down, as headlong through the waves 

Our gallant vessel rushed, 
A thousand gurgling watery sounds 
Around my senses gushed. 

33. Then I remember little more. 

One look to heaven I gave, 
"Where, like an angel's wing, I saw 
Our spotless ensign wave. 
23 



854 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

34. I tried to cheer. I cannot say 

Whether I swam or sank ; 
A blue mist closed around my eyes, 
And every thing was blank, 

35. When I awoke, a soldier lad, 

- All dripping from the sea, 
With two great tears upon his cheeks, 
Was bending oyer me, 

36. I tried to speak. He understood 

The wish I could not speak. 
He turned me. There, thank God I the flag 
Still fluttered at the peak J 

37. And there, while thread shall hang to thread, 

let that ensign fly ! 
The noblest constellation set 
Against our northern sky. 

38. A sign that we who live may claim 

The peerage of the brave ; 
A monument, that needs no scroll, 
For those beneath the wave. 



The Bells 

Edgar A. Poe. 



I. Hear the sledges with the bells — ■ 
Silver bells — 
What a world of merriment their melody foretells ! 
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, 

In the icy air of night I 
While the stars that over sprinkle 
All the heavens, seem to twinkle 

With a crystalline delight ; 
Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Eunic rhyme, 
To the tintinnabulation that so musically swells 
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells — 
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 355 

2. Hear the mellow wedding-bells, 

Golden bells! 
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells ! 
Through the balmy air of night 
How they ring out their delight 1 
From the molten-golden notes, 

And all in tune, 
What a liquid ditty floats 
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats 
On the moon ! 
0, from out the sounding cells, 
What a gush of euphony voluminously wells ! 
How it swells ! 
How it dwells 
On the Future ! how it tells 
Of the rapture that impels 
To the swinging and the ringing 

Of the bells, bells, bells— 
Of the beUs, bells, beUs, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells — 
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells ! 

3. Hear the loud alarum bells — 

Brazen bells ! 
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells ! 
In the startled ear of night 
How they scream out their affright ! 
Too much horrified to speak, 
They can only shriek, shriek, 
Out of tune, 
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, 
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire 
Leaping higher, higher, higher, 
With a desperate desire, 
And a resolute endeavor, 
Now — now to sit or never, 
By the side of the pale-faced moon. 
the bells, bells, bells ! 
What a tale their terror tells 
Of despair 1 
How they clang, and clash, and roar 1 
What a horror they outpour 
On the bosom of the palpitating air ! 



356 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Tet the ear, it fully knows, 
By the twanging 
And the clanging, 
How the danger ebbs and flows ; 
Tet the ear distinctly tells, 
In the jangling 
And the wrangling, 
How the danger sinks and swells, 
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells, 
Of the bells— 
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, 
Bells, bells, bells— 
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells ! 

4. Hear the tolling of the bells — 
Iron bells ! 
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels ! 
In the silence of the night, 
How we shiver with affright 
At the melancholy menace, of their tone ! 
For every sound that floats 
From the rust within their throats 

Is a groan. 
And the people — ah, the people — 
They that dwell up in the steeple, 

All alone, 
And who tolling, tolling, tolling, 

In that muffled monotone, 
Feel a glory in so rolling 

On the human heart a stone — 
They are neither man nor woman — 
They are neither brute nor human — 

They are Ghouls : 
And their king it is who tolls ; 
And he rolls, rolls, rolls, rolls, 

A paean from the bells I 
And his merry bosom swells 

With the pasan of the bells I 
And he dances and he yells ; 
Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Runic rhyme, 
To the pasan of the bells — 
Of the bells ; 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 357 

Keeping time, time, time, 
In a sort of Runic rhyme, 

To the throbbing of the bells — 
Of the bells, bells, bells, 

To the sobbing of the bells ; 
Keeping time, time, time, 
As he knells, knells, knells, 
In a happy Runic rhyme, 

To the rolling of the bells — 
Of the bells, bells, bells — 
To the tolling of the bells, 
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells- 
Bells, bells, bells, 
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. 



The Rising, 111Q. 

T. Buchanan Read. 



1. Out of the North the wild news came, 
Far flashing on its wings of flame, 
Swift as the boreal light which flies 

At midnight through the startled skies. 

2. And there was tumult in the air, 

The fife's shrill note, the drum's loud beat, 
And through the wide land every- where 

The answering tread of hurrying feet ; 
While the first oath of Freedom's gun 
Came on the blast from Lexington ; 
And Concord roused, no longer tame, 
Forgot her old baptismal name, 
Made bare her patriot arm of power, 
And swelled the discord of the hour. 

?. "Within its shade of elm and oak 

The church of Berkley Manor stood ; 
There Sunday found the rural folk, 

And some esteemed of gentle blood. 
In vain their feet with loitering tread 

Passed 'mid the graves where rank is naught ; 

All could not read the lesson taught 
In that republic of the dead. 



358 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

4. How sweet the hour of Sabbath talk, 

The vale with peace and sunshine full, 

"Where all the happy people walk, 

Decked in their homespun flax and wool ! 

"Where youths* gay hats with blossoms bloom ; 
And every maid, with simple art, 
"Wears on her breast, like her own heart, 

A bud whose depths are all perfume; 
While every garment's gentle stir 
Is breathing rose and lavender. 



5. There, vailed in all the sweets that are 

Blown from the violet's purple bosom, 
The scent of lilacs from afar, 

Touched with the sweet shrub's spicy blossom, 
Walked Esther ; and the rustic ranks 
Stood on each side like flowery banks, 
To let her pass — a blooming aisle, 
Made brighter by her summer smile ; 
On her father's arm she seemed to be 
The last green bough of that haughty tree. 

6. The pastor came : his snowy locks 

Hallowed his brow of thought and care ; 
And calmly, as shepherds lead their flocks, 

He led into the house of prayer. 

Forgive the student Edgar there 
If his enchanted eyes would roam, 

And if his thoughts soared not beyond, 

And if his heart glowed warmly fond 
Beneath his hope's terrestrial dome. 
To him the maiden seemed to stand, 

Vailed in the glory of the morn, 

At the bar of the heavenly bourn, 
A guide to the golden holy land. 

When came the service low response, 
Hers seemed an angel's answering tongue ; 
"When with the singing choir she sung, 
O'er all the rest her sweet notes rung, 
As if a silver bell were swung 

'Mid bells of iron and of bronze. 



DEAMATIC STYLE. 359 

1. At times, perchance — 0, happy chance J 

Their lifting eyes together met, 

Like violet to violet, 
Casting a dewy greeting glance. 
For once be Love, young Love, forgiven, 

That here, in a bewildered trance, 

He brought the blossoms of romance, 
And waved them at the gates of heaven. 

8. The pastor rose ; the prayer was strong ; 
The psalm was warrior David's song; 
The text, a few short words of might — 

" The Lord of hosts shall arm the right 1 " 
He- spoke of wrongs too long endured, 
. Of sacred rights to be secured ; 

Then from his patriot tongue of flame 
The startling words for Freedom came. 
The stirring sentences he spake 
Compelled the heart to glow or quake, 
And, rising on his theme's broad wing, 

And grasping in his nervous hand 

The imaginary battle-brand, 
In face of death he dared to fling 
Defiance to a tyrant king. 

9. Even as he spoke, his frame, renewed, 
In eloquence of attitude, 

Eose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher; 
Then swept his kindling glance of fire 
From startled pew to breathless choir ; 
"When suddenly his mantle wide 
His hands impatient flung aside, 
And, lo, he met their wondering eyes 
Complete in all a warrior's guise. 

A moment there was awful pause — 
When Berkley cried, " Cease, traitor ! cease I 
G-od's temple is the house of peace ! " 
The other shouted, "Nay, not so, 

When God is with our righteous cause ; 
His holiest places then are ours, 
His temples are our forts and towers 
That frown upon the tyrant foe ; 



360 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

In this, the dawn of Freedom's day, 
There is a time to fight and pray ! " 

10. And now before the open door — 

The warrior priest had ordered so — 
The enlisting trumpet's sudden roar 
Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er, 

Its long reverberating blow, 
So loud and clear, it seemed the ear 
Of dusty death must wake and hear. 
And there the startling drum and fife 
Fired the living with fiercer life ; 
"While overhead, with wild increase, 
Forgetting its ancient toll of peace, 

The great bell swung as never before. 
It seemed as it would never cease ; 
And every word its ardor flung 
From off its jubilant iron tongue 

Was, " "War I war ! war ! " 

11. "Who dares " — this was the patriot's cry, 

As striding from the desk he came — 
" Come out with me, in Freedom's name, 
For her to live, for her to die ? " 
A hundred hands flung up reply, 
A hundred voices answered, "I!" 



The Polish Boy. 



Mrs. Arm S. Stephens. 

1. "Whence came those shrieks, so wild and shrill, 

That like an arrow cleave the air, 
Causing the blood to creep and thrill 

With such sharp cadence of despair ? 
Once more they come ! as if a heart 

"Were cleft in twain by one quick blow, 
And every string had voice apart 

To utter its peculiar woe I 

2. Whence came they ? From yon temple, where 

An altar raised for private prayer, 

Now forms the warrior's marble bed, 

Who Warsaw's gallant armies led. 



DEAMATIC STYLE. 361 

The dim funereal tapers threw 

A holy luster o'er his brow, 
And burnish with their rays of light 

The mass of curls that gather bright 
Above the haughty brow and eye 

Of a young boy that's kneeling by. 

3. What hand is that whose icy press 

Clings to the dead with death's own grasp, 
But meets no answering caress — 

No thrilling fingers seek its clasp ? 
It is the hand of her whose cry 

Eang wildly late upon the air, 
When the dead warrior met her eye, 

Outstretched upon the altar there. 

4. Now with white lips and broken moan 
She sinks beside the altar stone ; 

But hark ! the heavy tramp of feet 

Is heard along the gloomy street. 

Nearer and nearer yet they come, 

With clanking arms and noiseless drum. 

They leave the pavement. Flowers that spread 

Their beauties by the path they tread, 

Are crushed and broken. Crimson hands 

Eend brutally their blooming bands. 

Now whispered curses, low and deep, 

Around the holy temple creep. 

The gate is burst. A ruffian band 

Eush in and savagely demand, 

With brutal voice and oath profane, 

The startled boy for exile's chain. 

5. The mother sprang with gesture wild, 
And to her bosom snatched the child ; 
Then with pale cheek and flashing eye, 
Shouted with fearful energy — 

" Back, ruffians, back ! nor dare to tread 
Too near the body of my dead ! 
Nor touch the living boy — I stand 
Between him and your lawless band ! 
No traitor he. But listen ! I 
Have cursed your master's tyranny. 



362 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

I cheered my lord to join the band 

Of those who swore to free our land, 

Or righting die ; and when he pressed 

Me for the last time to his breast, 

I knew that soon his form would be 

Low as it is, or Poland free. 

He went and grappled with the foe, 

Laid many a haughty Russian low ; 

But he is dead — the good — the brave — 

And I, his wife, am worse — a slave ! 

Take me, and bind these arms, these hands, 

With Russia's heaviest iron bands, 

And drag me to Siberia's wild 

To perish, if 'twill save my child ! " 

6. "Peace, woman, peace!" the leader cried, 
Tearing the pale boy from her side ; 
And in his ruffian grasp he bore 
His victim to the temple door. 

*l. "One moment?" shrieked the mother, "one; 
Can land or gold redeem my son ? 
If so, I bend my Polish knee, 
And, Russia, ask a boon of thee. 
Take palaces, take lands, take all, 
But leave him free from Russian thrall. 
Take these," and her white arms and hands 
She stripped of rings and diamond bands, 
And tore from braids of long black hair 
The gems that gleamed like star-light there ; 
Unclasped the brilliant coronal 
And carcanet of orient pearl ; 
Her cross of blazing rubies last 
Down to the Russian's feet she cast. 

8. He stooped to seize the glittering store ; 
Unspringing from the marble floor, 
The mother with a cry of joy. 
Snatched to her leaping heart the boy ! 
But no — the Russian's iron grasp 
Again undid the mother's clasp. 
Forward she fell, with one long cry 
Of more than mother's agony. 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 363 

9. But the brave child is roused at length, 
And breaking from the Russian's hold, 
He stands, a giant in the strength 
Of his young spirit, fierce and bold. 

10. Proudly he towers ; his flashing eye ; 

So blue and fiercely bright, 
Seems lighted from the eternal sky, 

So brilliant is its light. 
His curling lips and crimson cheeks 
Foretell the thought before he speaks. 
With a full voice of proud command 
He turns upon the wondering band. 

11. " Te hold me not ! no, no, nor can ; 
This hour has made the boy a man. 
The world shall witness that one soul 
Fears not to prove itself a Pole. 

12. " I knelt beside my slaughtered sire, 
Nor felt one throb of vengeful ire ; 

I wept upon his marble brow — 

Yes, wept — I was a child ; but now 

My noble mother on her knee, 

Has done the work of years for me. 

Although in this small tenement 

My soul is cramped — unbowed, unbent, 

I've still within me ample power 

To free myself this very hour. 

This dagger in my heart ! and then, 

Where is your boasted power, base men? " 

He drew aside his broidered vest, 

And there, like slumbering serpent's crest, 

The jeweled haft of a poniard bright, 

Glittered a moment on the sight. 

" Ha ! start ye back ? Fool ! coward ! knave ! 

Think ye my noble father's glave 

Could drink the life blood of a slave ? 

The pearls that on the handle flame 

Would blush to rubies in their shame. 

The blade would quiver in thy breast, 

Ashamed of such ignoble rest ! 

No ; thus I rend thy tyrant's chain, 

And fling him back a boy's disdain I " 



364 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

13. A moment, and the funeral light 

Flashed on the jeweled weapon bright ; 
Another, and his young heart's blood 
Leaped to the floor a crimson flood. 
Quick to his mother's side he sprang, 
And on the air his clear voice rang — 
" Up, mother, up ! I'm fjee ! I'm free I 
The choice was death or slavery ; 
Up ! mother, up ! look on my face, 
I only wait for thy embrace. 
One last, last word — a blessing, one, 
To prove thou knowest what I have done ; 
No look 1 no word ! Canst thou not feel 
My warm blood o'er thy heart congeal? 
Speak, mother, speak — lift up thy head. 
What, silent still ? Then art thou dead ! 
Great G-od, I thank thee ! Mother, I 
Rejoice with thee, and thus to die." 
Slowly he falls. The clustering hair 
Rolls back and leaves that forehead bare. 
One long, deep breath, and his pale head 
Lay on his mother's bosom, dead. 



Count Candespina's Standard. 

" The King of Aragon now entered Castile, by way of Soria and Osma, with a 
powerful army ; and, having been met by the queen's forces, both parties encamped 
near Sepulveda, and prepared to give battle. 

" This engagement, called, from the field where it took place, de la Espina, is 
one of the most famous of that age. The dastardly Count of Lara fled at the first 
shock, and joined the queen at Burgos, where she was anxiously awaiting the issue ; 
but the brave Count of Candespina (Gomez Gonzalez) stood his ground to the last, 
and died on the field of battle. His standard-bearer, a gentleman of the house of 
Olea, after having his horse killed under him, and both hands cut off by saber- 
strokes, fell beside his master, still clasping the standard in his arms, and repeat- 
ing his war-cry of ' Olea! ' " — Annals of the Queens of Spam. 

1. Scarce were the splintered lances dropped, 
Scarce were the swords drawn out, 
Ere recreant Lara, sick with fear, 
Had wheeled his steed about; 



DKAMATIC STYLE. 365 

2. His courser reared, and plunged, and neighed, 

Loathing the fight to yield ; 
But the coward spurred him to the bone, 
And drove him from the field. 

3. Gonzalez in his stirrups rose : 

"Turn, turn, thou traitor knight 1 
Thou bold tongue in a lady's bower, 
Thou dastard in a fight! " 

4. But vainly valiant Gomez cried 

Across the waning fray : 

Pale Lara and his craven band 

To Burgos scoured away. 

5. "Now, by the God above me, sirs, 

Better we all were dead, 
Than a single knight among ye all 
Should ride where Lara led ! 

6. "Yet ye who fear to follow me, 

As yon traitor turn and fly ; 
For I lead ye not to win a field : 
I lead ye forth to die. 

7. " Olea, plant my standard here — 

Here on this little mound ; 
Here raise the war-cry of thy house, 
Make this our rallying ground. 

8. "Forget not, as thou hop'st for grace, 

The last care I shall have 
Will be to hear thy battle-cry, 
And see that standard wave." 

9. Down on the ranks of Aragon 

The bold Gonzalez drove, 

And Olea raised his battle-cry, 

And waved the flag above. 

10. Slowly Gonzalez' little band 
Gave ground before the foe ; 
But not an inch of the field was won 
Without a deadly blow; 



366 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



11. And not an inch of the field was won 

That did not draw a tear 
From the widowed wives of Aragon, 
That fatal news to hear. 

12. Backward and backward Gomez fought, 

And high o'er the clashing steel, 
Plainer and plainer rose the cry, 
"Olea for Castile 1" 

1 3. Backward fought Gomez, step by step, 

Till the cry was close at hand, 
Till his dauntless standard shadowed him ; 
And there he made his stand. 

14. Mace, sword, and ax rang on his mail, 

Tet he moved not where he stood, 
Though each gaping joint of armor ran 
A stream of purple blood. 

15. As, pierced with countless wounds, he fell, 

The standard caught his eye, 
And he smiled, like an infant hushed asleep, 
To hear the battle-cry. 

16. Now one by one the wearied knights 

Have fallen, or basely flown ; 
And on the mound where his post was fixed 
Olea stood alone. 

11. "Yield up thy banner, gallant knight! 
Thy lord lies on the plain ; 
Thy duty has been nobly done ; 
I would not see thee slain." 

18. " Spare pity, King of Aragon j 
I would not hear thee lie: 
My lord is looking down from heaven 
To see his standard fly." 



19. "Yield, madman, yield! thy horse is down, 
Thou hast nor lance nor shield ; 
Fly !— I will grant thee time." " This flag 
Can neither fly nor yield! " 



DEAMATIC STYLE. 367 

20. They girt the standard round about, 

A wall of flashing steel ; 
But still they heard the battle-cry, 
"Olea for Castile!" 

21. And there, against all Aragon, 

Full-armed with lance and brand, 
Olea fought until the sword 
Snapped in his sturdy hand. 

22. Among the foe, with that high scorn 

Which laughs at earthly fears, 
He hurled the broken hilt, and drew 
His dagger on the spears. 

23. They hewed the hauberk from his breast, 

The helmet from his head ; 
They hewed the hands from off his limbs ; 
From every vein he bled. 

24. Clasping the standard to his heart, 

He raised one dying peal, 
That rang as if a trumpet blew— 
" Olea for Castile t " 



The Bakon's Last Banquet. 

A. G. Greene, 

1. O'er a low couch the setting sun 

Had thrown its latest ray, 
"Where, in his last strong agony, 

A dying warrior lay — 
The stern old Baron Eudiger, 

Whose frame had ne'er been bent 
By wasting pain, till time and toil 

Its iron strength had spent. 

2. " They come around me here, and say 

My days of life are o'er — 
That I shall mount my noble steed 
And lead my band no more ; 



368 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

• 

They come, and to my beard they dare 

To tell me now, that I, 
Their own liege lord and master born — 

That I — ha ! ha 1 — must die ! 

3. " And what is death ? I've dared him oft 

Before the Paynim's spear — 
Think ye he's entered at my gate, 

Has come to seek me here ? 
I've met him, faced him, scorned him, 

"When the fight was raging hot — 
I'll try his might — I'll brave his power — 

Defy, and fear him not ! 

4. "Hoi sound the tocsin from the tower, 

And fire the culverinl 
Bid each retainer arm with speed, 

Call every vassal in I 
Up with my banner on the wall ! 

The banquet board prepare ! 
Throw wide the portal of my hall, 

And bring my armor there I " 

5. A hundred hands were busy then ; 

The banquet forth was spread, 
And rang the heavy oaken floor 

"With many a martial tread ; 
While from the rich, dark tracery, 

Along the vaulted wall, 
Lights gleamed on harness, plume, and spear, 

O'er the proud Gothic hall. 

6. Fast hurrying through the outer gate, 

The mailed retainers poured 
On through the portal's frowning arch, 

And thronged around the board ; 
"While at its head, within his dark, 

Carved oaken chair of state, 
Armed cap-a-pie, stern Eudiger, 

"With girded falchion sate. 

7. " Fill every beaker up, my men ! 

Pour forth the cheering wine ! 
There's life and strength in every drop, 
Thanksgiving to the vine ! 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 369 

Are ye all there, my vassals true ? — 

Mine eyes are waxing dim : 
Fill round, my tried and fearless ones, 

Each goblet to the brim! 

8. " Ye're there, but yet I see you not 1 

Draw forth each trusty sword, 
And let me hear your faithful steel 

Clash once around my board! 
I hear it faintly — louder yet ! 

"What clogs my heavy breath ? 
Up, all ! and shout for Rudiger, 

' Defiance unto death ! ' " 

9. Bowl rang to bowl, steel clanged to steel, 

And rose a deafening cry, 
That made the torches flare around, 

And shook the flags on high : 
" Ho ! cravens ! do ye fear him ? 

Slaves ! traitors ! have ye flown ? 
Ho! cowards, have ye left me 

To meet him here alone? 

10. " But I defy him ! let him come ! " 

Down rang the massy cup, 
"While from its sheath the ready blade 

Came flashing half-way up ; 
And with the black and heavy plumes 

Scarce trembling on his head, 
There, in his dark, carved, oaken chair, 

Old Rudiger sat— dead! 



Beenaedo Del Caepio. 

Mrs. Remans. 

The warrior bowed his crested head, and tamed his heart of fire, 
And sued the haughty king to free his long-imprisoned sire ; 
" I bring thee here my fortress-keys, I bring my captive train ; 
I pledge thee faith, my liege, my lord! — break my father's 
chain ! " 

24 v 



870 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

2. u Rise, rise f even now thy father comes, a ransomed man this day ! 
Mount thy good horse, and thou and I will meet him on his way." 
Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed, 
And urged, as if with lanee in rest, the charger's foamy speed. 

3. And lot from far, as on they pressed, there came a glittering 

hand, 
With one that r midst them stately rode, as a leader in the land ; 
" Now haste, Bernardo, haste ! for there, in very truth, is he, 
The father whom thy faithful heart hath yearned so long to see." 

4. His dark eye flashed, his proud breast heaved, his cheek's hue 

came and went ; 
He reached that gray-haired chieftain's side, and there, dis- 
mounting, bent; 
A lowly knee to earth he bent, his father's hand he took — 
What was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook ? 

5. That hand was cold — a frozen thing- — it dropped from his like 

lead I 
He looked up to the face above— the face was of the dead ! 
A plume waved o'er the noble brow — the brow was fixed and 

white ; 
He met, at last, his father's eyes — but in them was no sight ! 

6. Up from the ground he sprang and gazed ; but who could paint 

that gaze ? 
They hushed their very hearts, that saw its horror and amaze — 
They might have chained him, as before that stony form he 

stood ; 
For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his lip the 

blood. 

*l. "Father!" at last he murmured low, and wept like childhood 
then: 
Talk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike men ! 
He thought on all his glorious hopes, and all his young renown — 
He flung his falchion from his side, and in the dust sat down. 

8. Then covering with his steel-gloved hands his darkly mournful 
brow, 
" No more, there is no more," he said, " to lift the sword for now ; 
My king is false — my hope betrayed! My father! — the worth, 
The glory, and the loveliness are passed away from earth ! 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 371 

9. " I thought to stand where banners waved, my sire, beside thee 

yet! 
I would that there our kindred blood on Spain's free soil had met ! 
Thou wouldst have known my spirit then; for thee my fields 

were won ; 
And thou hast perished in thy chains, as though thou hadst no 

son!' 1 

10. Then, starting from the ground once more, he seized the monarch's 

rein, 
Amid the pale and wildered looks of all the courtier train; 
And with a fierce, o'ermastering grasp, the rearing war-horse led, 
And sternly set them face to face — the king before the dead: 

11. " Came I not forth, upon thy pledge, my father's hand to kiss? 
Be still, and gaze thou on, false king ! and tell me, what is this ? 
The voice, the glance, the heart I sought — give answer, where are 

they? 
If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, send life through this 
cold clay ! 

12. "Into these glassy eyes put light — be still! keep down thine ire! 
Bid these white lips a blessing speak — this earth is not my sire ; 
Give me back him for whom I strove, for whom my blood was 

shed! 
Thou canst not ? — and a king ! — his dust be mountains on thy 
head!" 

13. He loosed the steed — his slack hand fell upon the silent face ; 
He cast one long, deep, troubled look, then turned from that sad 

place ; 
His hope was crushed ; his after fate untold in martial strain ; 
His banner led the spears no more amid the hills of Spain. 



The Raven. 

Edgar A. Poe. 
1. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, 
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore — 
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, 
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 
" 'Tis some visitor," I muttered, " tapping at my chamber door — 
Only this, and nothing more." 



372 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION", 

2. Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, 

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. 
Eagerly I wished the morrow : vainly I had sought to borrow 
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore — 
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore — 
Nameless here for evermore. 

3. And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain, 
Thrilled me — rilled me with fantastic terrors never felt before ; 
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating, 
" 'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door- 
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber-door ; 

That it is, and nothing more." 

4. Presently my soul grew stronger : hesitating then no longer, 
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; 
But the fact is, I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, 
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, 
That I scarce was sure I heard you " — here I opened wide the door: 

Darkness there, and nothing more. 

5. Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, 

fearing, 
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before ; 
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, 
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word " Lenore ! " 
This /whispered, and an echo murmered back the word "Lenore !" 
Merely this, and nothing more. 

6. Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, 
Soon again I heard a tapping, something louder than before. 

" Surely," said I, " surely that is something at my window-lattice ; 
Let me see then what thereat is, and this mystery explore — 
Let my heart be still a moment, and this mystery explore ; — 
'Tis the wind, and nothing more." 

1. Open then I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, 
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore. 
Not the least obeisance made he; not an instant stopped or 

stayed he; 
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door — 
Perched upon a bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door — 
Perched, and sat, and nothing more. . 



DKAMATIC STYLE. 373 

8, Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, 
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, 

41 Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure 

no craven; 
Ghastly, grim, and ancient raven, wandering from the nightly shore, 
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Wight's Plutonian shore ? " 
Quoth the raven, " Nevermore ! " 

9. Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, 
Though, its answer little meaning — little relevancy bore ; 

For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being 
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door — 
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door 
With such name as " Nevermore ! " 

10. But the raven sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only 
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. 
Nothing further then he uttered — not a feather then he fluttered — 
Till I scarcely more than muttered, " Other friends have flown 

before— 
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before." 
Then the bird said, " Nevermore ! " 

11. Startled at the stillness, broken by reply so aptly spoken, 
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store, 
Caught from some unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster 
Followed fast and followed faster, till his song one burden bore — 
Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore, 

Of 'Nevermore — nevermore] ' " 

12. But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, 
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust, and 

door, 
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking 
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore — 
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore 
Meant in croaking "Nevermore ! " 

13. Thus I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing 

To the fowl, whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; 
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining 
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, 
But whose velvet violet lining, with the lamp-light gloating o'er, 
She shall press — ah 1 nevermore I 



374 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 

14. Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen 

censer 
Swung by seraphim, whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. 
"Wretch! " I cried, "thy God hath lent thee — by these angels 

he hath sent thee 
Eespite — respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore ! 
Quaff, quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore 1 " 
Quoth the raven, " Nevermore ! " 

15. " Prophet ! " said I, " thing of evil I — prophet still, if bird or devil ! 
Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, 
Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted — 

On this home by Horror haunted — tell me truly, I implore — 
Is there — is there balm in Gilead ? — tell me — tell me, I implore ! " 
Quoth the raven, " Nevermore ! " 

16. " Prophet 1 " said I, " thing of evil ! — prophet still, if bird or devil 1 
By that heaven that bends above us — by that God we both adore, 
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if, within the distant Aidenn, 
It shall clasp a sainted maiden, whom the angels name Lenore; 
Clasp a fair and radiant maiden, whom the angels name Lenore ! " 

Quoth the raven, " Nevermore ! " 

11. "Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend! " I shrieked 
upstarting — 
" Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore ! 
Leave no black plume as a token of that he thy soul hath spoken ! 
Leave my loneliness unbroken! — quit the bust above my door! 
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my 
door! " 

Quoth the raven, "Nevermore ! " 

18. And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting 
On the pallid bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door ; 
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming, 
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the 

floor; 
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor 
Shall be lifted — nevermore 1 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 375 

Scene from Hamlet. 

Act III. Scene III. 
[Enter Queen and Polonius.] 

Pol. He will come straight. Look, you lay home to him : 
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with ; 
And that your grace hath screened and stood between 
Much heat and him. I'll sconce me even here. 
Pray you be round with him. 

Queen. I'll warrant you — 
Fear me not. "Withdraw, I hear him coming. 

[Polonius conceals himself behind the arras.'] 

Hamlet. Now, mother, what's the matter ? 

Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. 

Hamlet. Mother, you have my father much offended. 

Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. 

Hamlet. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. 

Queen. "Why, how now, Hamlet ? 

Hamlet "What's the matter now ? 

Queen. Have you forgot me ? 

Hamlet No, by the rood, not so : 

You are the queen : your husband's brother's wife ; 
And — would it were not so ! — you are my mother. 

Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. 

Hamlet Come, come, and sit you down ; you shall not budge. 
You go not till I set you up a glass 
"Where you may see the inmost part of you. 

Queen. "What wilt thou do ? — thou wilt not murder me ? 

Hamlet. Leave wringing of your hands : peace ; sit you down, 
And let me wring your heart : for so I shall 
If it be made of penetrable stuff; 
If damned custom have not brazed it so 
That it is proof and bulwark against sense. 

Queen. What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue 
In noise so rude against me ? 

Hamlet Such an act, 

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty ; 
Calls virtue, hypocrite ; takes off the rose 
From the fair forehead of an innocent love 
And sets a blister there ; makes marriage vows 
As false as dicer's oath ! Oh, such a deed 



376 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

As from the body of contraction plucks 

The very soul ; and sweet religion makes 

A rhapsody of words. Heaven's face doth glow ; 

Tea, this solidity and compound mass, 

With tristful visage, as against the doom, 

Is thought-sick at the act. 

Queen. Ay me I what act, 

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ? 

Hamlet. Look here, upon this picture, and on this ; 
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. 
See what a grace was seated on this brow : 
Hyperion's curls ; the front of Jove himself; 
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; 
A station like the herald Mercury, 
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ; 
A combination, and a form, indeed, 
Where every god did seem to set his seal 
To give the world assurance of a man. 
This was your husband. Look you, now, what follows : 
Here is your husband ; like a mildewed ear, 
Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes ? 
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, 
And batten on this moor ? Ha ! have you eyes ? 
You cannot call it love, for at your age 
The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble, 
And waits upon the judgment ; and what judgment 
Would step from this to this ? 

Queen. Oh, speak no more I 

Thou turnest mine eyes into my very soul ; 
And there I see such black and grained spots, 
As will not leave their tinct. Oh, speak to me no more ! 
These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears ; 
No more, sweet Hamlet 1 

Hamlet A murderer and a villain : 

A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe 
Of your precedent lord : — a vice of kings : 
A cut-purse of the empire and the rule ; 
That from a shelf the precious diadem stole 
And put it in his pocket ! 

Queen. No more ! 

Hamlet. A king 

Of shreds and patches ; [Enter Ghost.] 



DRAMATIC STYLE. 377 

Save me and hover o'er me with your wings 

You heavenly guards ! What would your gracious figure ? 

Queen. Alas, he's mad! 

Hamlet. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, 
That, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by 
The important acting of your dread command ? 
Oh, say! 

Ghost. Do not forget ; this visitation 
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. 
But, look ! amazement -on thy mother sits : 
Oh, step between her and her fighting soul ; 
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works : 
Speak to her, Hamlet. 

Hamlet. How is it with you, lady ? 

Queen. Alas ! how is't with you, 
That you do bend your eye on vacancy, 
And with the incorporeal air do hold discourse ? 
Whereon do you look ? 

Hamlet. On him ! on him ! Look you, how pale he glares. 
His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, 
Would make them capable. Do not look on me, 
Lest with this piteous action you convert 
My stern effects : then what I have to do 
Will want true color ; tears, perchance, for blood. 

Queen. To whom do you speak this ? 

Hamlet. Do you see nothing there ? 

Queen. Nothing at all ; yet all that is I see. 

Hamlet. Nor did you nothing hear ? 

Queen. No, nothing, but ourselves. 

Hamlet. Why, look you there ! look, how it steals away ! 
My father, in his habit as he lived ! 
Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal ! 

[Exit GrHOST. 

Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain : 
This bodiless creation ecstasy 
Is very cunning in. 

Hamlet. Ecstasy ! 

My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, 
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness 
That I have uttered : bring me to the test, 
And I the matter will re-word ; which madness 
Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, 



378 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, 
That not your trespass, but my madness, speaks : 
It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, 
Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, 
Infects unseen. Confess yourself to Heaven ; 
Repent what's past; avoid what is to" come; 
And do not spread the compost on the weeds 
To make them ranker. 

Queen. Hamlet ! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. 

Hamlet Oh. throw away the worser part of it 
And live the purer with the other half. 
Good-night: once more, good-night! 
And when you are desirous to be blest, 
I'll blessing beg of you. 



HUMOROUS STYLE. 

The Nantucket Skipper. 

J. T. Fields. 

1. Many a long, long year ago, 

Nantucket skippers had a plan 
Of finding out, though " lying low," 

How near New York their schooners ran. 

2. They greased the lead before it fell, 

And then by sounding through the night, 
Knowing the soil that stuck so well, 
They always guessed their reckoning right. 

3. A skipper gray, whose eyes were dim, 

Could tell, by tasting, just the spot, 
And so below he'd " douse the glim," 
After, of course, his " something hot." 

4. Snug in his berth, at eight o'clock, 

This ancient skipper might be found ; 
No matter how his craft would rock, 
He slept — for skippers' naps are sound. 

5. The watch on deck would now and then 

Run down and wake him with, the lead ; 
. He'd up, and taste, and tell the men 
How many miles they went ahead. 



HUMOROUS STYLE. 379 

6. One night, 'twas Jotham Marden's watch, 

A curious wag — the peddler's son ; 

And so he mused, (the wanton wretch !) 

" To-night I'll have a grain of fun. 

1. ""We're all a set of stupid fools 

To think the skipper knows, by tasting, 
What ground he's on ; Nantucket schools 

Don't teach such stuff, with all their basting! " 

8. And so he took the well-greased lead 

And rubbed it o'er a box of earth 
That stood on deck, (a parsnip-bed,) 
And then he sought the skipper's berth. 

9. "Where are we now, sir? Please to taste." 

The skipper yawned, put out his tongue, 
And oped his eyes in wondrous haste, 
And then upon the floor he sprung ! 

10. The skipper stormed, and tore his hair ; 

Thrust on his boots, and roared to Marden, 
" Nantucket's sunk, and here we are 
Right over old Marm Hackett's garden ! " 



A Categorical Courtship. 

I sat one night beside a blue-eyed girl — 

The fire was out, and so, too, was her mother ; 
A feeble flame around the lamp did curl, 

Making faint shadows, blending in each other. 
'Twas nearly twelve o'clock, too, in November, 
She had a shawl on also, I remember. 
Well, I had been to see her every night 

For thirteen days, and had a sneaking notion 
To pop the question, thinking all was right, 

And once or twice had made an awkward motion 
To take her hand, and stammered, coughed, and stuttered, 
But somehow nothing to the point had uttered. 
I thought this chance too good now to be lost ; 

I hitched my chair up pretty close beside her, 
Drew a long breath, and then my legs I crossed, 

Bent over, sighed, and for five minutes eyed her ; 



!80 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 



She looked as if she knew what next was coming, 
And with her foot upon the floor was drumming. 
I didn't know how to begin, or where — 

I couldn't speak ; the words were always choking ; 
I scarce could move — I seemed tied in my chair — 

I hardly breathed — 'twas awfully provoking; 
The perspiration from each pore was oozing ; 
My heart and brain and limbs their power seemed losing. 
At length I saw a brindled tabby cat 

"Walk purring up, inviting me to pat her ; 
An idea came, electric-like at that — 

My doubts, like summer clouds, began to scatter ; 
I seized on tabby, though a scratch she gave me, 
And said, " Come, Puss, ask Mary if she'll have me?" 
'Twas done at once— the murder now was out ; 

The thing was all explained in half a minute ; 
She blushed, and, turning pussy cat about, 

Said, " Pussy, tell him yes ! " Her foot was in it 1- 
The cat had thus saved me my category, 
And here's the catastrophe of my story. 



Okator Puff. 

Thomas Moore. 

1. Mr. Orator Puff had two tones to his voice, 

The one squeaking thus, and the other down so ; 
In each sentence he uttered he gave you your choice ; 
For one half was B alt, and the rest Gr below. 
Oh ! Oh ! Orator Puff, 
One voice for an orator's surely enough. 

2. But he still talked away, spite of coughs and of frowns, 
So distracting all ears with his ups and his downs, 
That a wag once, on hearing the orator say, 

" My voice is for war," asked him, "Which of them, pray? 1 
Oh! Oh! Orator Puff, 
One voice for an orator's surely enough. 

3. Reeling homeward one evening, top-heavy with gin, 

And rehearsing his speech on the weight of the crown, 
He tripped near a saw-pit and tumbled right in ; 

" Sinking-fund " the last words as his noddle came down. 
Oh! Oh! Orator Puff, 
One voice for an orator's surely enough. 



HUMOKOUS STYLE. 381 

" Ho ! help ! " he exclaimed, in his he and she tones ; 
" Help me out ! help me out I I have broken my bones ! " 
" Help you out 1 " said a Paddy, who passed ; " what a bother ! 
"Why, there's two of you there ; can't you help one another ? " 
Oh! Oh! Orator Puff, 
One voice for an orator's surely enough. 



The Smack in School. 

W. P. Palmer. 

A district school, not far away 

'Mid Berkshire hills, on Winter's day, 

Was humming with its wonted noise 

Of threescore mingled girls and boys — 

Some few upon their tasks intent, 

But more on furtive mischief bent ; 

The while the master's downward look 

Was fastened on a copy-book ; 

When suddenly, behind his back, 

Rose, loud and clear, a rousing smack ! 

As 'twere a battery of bliss 

Let off in one tremendous kiss ! 

"What's that?" the startled master cries; 

"That thir," a little imp replies, 

" Wath William Willith, if you pleathe— 

I thaw him kith Thuthannah Peathe ! " 

With frown to make a statue thrill, 

The master thundered, " Hither, Will 1 " 

Like wretch o'ertaken in his track, 

With stolen chattels on his back, 

Will hung his head in fear and shame, 

And to the awful presence came — 

A great, green, bashful simpleton, 

The butt of all good-natured fun. 

With smile suppressed and birch upraised, 

The threatener faltered — " I'm amazed 

That you, my biggest pupil, should 

Be guilty of an act so rude ! 

Before the whole set school to boot — 

What evil genius put you to't ? " 



382 



SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

" 'Twas she herself, sir," sobbed the lad, 
" I didn't mean to be so bad ; 
But when Susannah shook her curls, 
And whispered I was 'feared of girls, 
And dassn't kiss a baby's doll, 
I couldn't stand it, sir, at all ! 
But up and kissed her on the spot, 
I know — 600 hoo — I ought to not, 
But, somehow, from her looks, boo hoo, 
I thought she kind o' wished me to ! " 



Pyeamus and Thisbe. 

John Q. Saxe. 

This tragical tale, which they say is a true one, 

Is old ; but the manner is wholly a new one. 

One Ovid, a writer of some reputation, 

Has told it before in a tedious narration ; 

In a style, to be sure, of remarkable fullness, 

But which nobody reads on account of its dullness. 

Young Peter Pyramus — I call him Peter, 
Not for the sake of the rhyme or the metre ; 
But merely to make the name completer — 
For Peter lived in the olden times, 
And in one of the worst of pagan climes 
That flourish now in classical fame, 
Long before either noble or boor 
Had such a thing as a Christian name. 
Young Peter, then, was a nice young beau 
As any young lady would wish to know ; 
In years, I ween, he was rather green, 
That is to say, he was just eighteen — 
A trifle too short, a shaving too lean, 
But "a nice young man" as ever was seen, 
And fit to dance with a May-day queen ! 

Now Peter loved a beautiful girl 
As ever ensnared the heart of an earl, 
In the magical trap of an auburn curl — 
A little Miss Thisbe, who lived next door, 
(They slept, in fact, on the very same floor, 



HUMOROUS STYLE. 883 

"With a wall between them and nothing more — 
Those double dwellings were common of yore,) 
And they loved each other, the legends say, 
In that very beautiful, bountiful way, 
That every young maid and every young blade 
Are wont to do before they grow staid, 
And learn to love by the laws of trade ; 
But (alack-a-day, for the girl and boy!) 
A little impediment checked their joy, 
And gave them awhile the deepest annoy ; 
For some good reason, which history cloaks, 
The match didn't happen to please the old folks I 

So Thisbe's father and Peter's mother 

Began the young couple to worry and bother, 

And tried their innocent passion to smother, 

By keeping the lovers from seeing each other ! 

But who ever heard of a marriage deterred, 

Or even deferred, 

By any contrivance so very absurd 

As scolding the boy and caging the bird ? 

Now Peter, who wasn't discouraged at all 

By obstacles such as the timid appal, 

Contrived to discover a whole in the wall, 

Which wasn't so thick but removing a brick 

Made a passage — though rather provokingly small. 

Through this little chink the lover could greet her, 

And secrecy made their courting the sweeter, 

"While Peter kissed Thisbe, and Thisbe kissed Peter — ■ 

For kisses, like folks with diminutive souls, 

Will manage to creep through the smallest of holes ! 

'Twas here that the lovers, intent upon love, 

Made a nice little plot to meet at a spot 

Near a mulberry tree in a neighboring grove ; 

For the plan was all laid by the youth and the maid, 

Whose hearts, it would seem, were uncommonly bold ones, 

To run off and get married in spite of the old ones. 

In the shadows of evening, as still as a mouse, 

The beautiful maiden slipped out of the house, 

The mulberry tree impatient to find ; 

While Peter, the vigilant matrons to blind, 

Strolled leisurely out, some minutes behind. 



384 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION. 

While waiting alone by the trysting tree, 
A terrible lion as e'er you set eye on, 
Came roaring along quite horrid to see, 
And caused the young maiden in terror to flee, 
(A lion's a creature whose regular trade is 
Blood — and " a terrible thing among ladies,") 
And losing her vail as she ran from the wood, 
The monster bedabbled it over with blood. 

Now Peter arriving, and seeing the vail 

All covered o'er and reeking with gore, 

Turned, all of a sudden, exceedingly pale, 

And sat himself down to weep and to wail — 

For, soon as he saw the garment, poor Peter 

Made up his mind in very short metre 

That Thisbe was dead, and the lion had eat her ! 

So breathing a prayer, he determined to share 

The fate of his darling, " the loved and the lost," 

And fell on his dagger, and gave up the ghost ! 

Now Thisbe returning, and viewing her beau, 

Lying dead by her vail, (which she happened to know,) 

She guessed in a moment the cause of his erring ; 

And, seizing the knife that had taken his life, 

In less than a jiffy was dead as a herring. 

MORAL. 

Young gentlemen ! — pray recollect, if you please, 
Not to make assignations near mulberry trees. 
Should your mistress be missing, it shows a weak head 
To be stabbing yourself till you know she is dead. 
Toung ladies ! — you shouldn't go strolling about 
When your anxious mammas don't know you are out; 
And remember that accidents often befall 
From kissing young fellows through holes in the wall I 



A Very Important Proceeding — Mr. Pickwick. 

Diekms. 

Mr. Pickwick's apartments in GTos well- street, although on a limited 
scale, were not only of a very neat and comfortable description, but 



HUMOROUS STYLE. 385 

peculiarly adapted for the residence of a man of his genius and obser- 
vation. His sitting-room was the first floor front, his bed-room was 
the second floor front ; and thus, whether he was sitting at his desk 
in the parlor, or standing before the dressing-glass in his dormitory, 
he had an equal opportunity of contemplating human nature in all the 
numerous phases it exhibits- in that not more populous than popular 
thoroughfare. His landlady, Mrs. Bardell — the relict and sole execu- 
trix of a deceased custom-house officer — was a comely woman of 
bustling manners and agreeable appearance, with a natural genius for 
cooking, improved by study and long practice into an exquisite talent. 
There were no children, no servants, no fowls. The only other in- 
mates of the house were a large man and a small boy ; the first a 
lodger, the second a production of Mrs. Bardell's. The large man was 
always at home precisely at ten o'clock at night, at which hour he 
regularly condensed himself into the limits of a dwarfish French bed- 
stead in the back parlor ; and the infantine sports and gymnastic ex- 
ercises of Master Bardell were exclusively confined to the neighboring 
pavements and gutters. Cleanliness and quiet reigned throughout the 
house, and in it Mr. Pickwick's will was law. 

To any one acquainted with these points of the domestic economy 
of the establishment, and conversant with the admirable regulation 
of Mr. Pickwick's mind, his appearance and behavior on the morning 
previous to that which had been fixed upon for the journey to Eatans- 
will would have been most mysterious and unaccountable. He paced 
the room to and fro with hurried steps, popped his head out of the 
window at intervals of about three minutes each, constantly referred 
to his watch, and exhibited many other manifestations of impatience 
very unusual with him. It was evident that something of great im- 
portance was in contemplation, but what that something was not even 
Mrs. Bardell herself had been enabled to discover. 

" Mrs. Bardell," said Mr. Pickwick at last as that amiable female 
approached the termination of a prolonged dusting of the apartment. 

''Sir," said Mrs. Bardell. 

u Your little boy is a very long time gone." 

"Why, it is a good long way to the Borough, sir," remonstrated 
Mrs. Bardell. 

*'Ah," said Mr. Pickwick, "very true; so it is." 

Mr. Pickwick relapsed into silence, and Mrs. Bardell resumed her 
dustii. Z,. 

"Mrs. Bardell," said Mr. Pickwick at the expiration of a few 
minutes. 

" Sir," said Mrs. Bardell again. 

25 



386 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION." 

"Dq you think it's a much greater expense to keep two people than • 
to keep one? " 

"La, Mr. Pickwick," said Mrs. Bardell, coloring up to the very- 
border of her cap, as she fancied she observed a species of matri- 
monial twinkle in the eyes of her lodger; "La, Mr. Pickwick, what 
a question ! " 

" Well, but do you ? " inquired Mr. Pickwick. 

" That depends " — said Mrs. Bardell, approaching the duster very 
near to Mr. Pickwick's elbow, which was planted on the table ; "that 
depends a good deal upon the person, you know, Mr. Pickwick ; and 
whether it's a saving and careful person, sir." 

" That's very true," said Mr. Pickwick; "but the person I have in 
my eye (here he looked very hard at Mrs. Bardell) I think possesses 
these qualities, and has, moreover, a considerable knowledge of the 
world, and a great deal of sharpness, Mrs. Bardell, which may be of 
material use to me." 

" La, Mr. Pickwick," said Mrs. Bardell, the crimson rising to her 
cap-border again. 

"I do," said Mr. Pickwick, growing energetic, as was his wont in 
speaking of a subject which interested him ; " I do, indeed • and to 
tell you the truth, Mrs. Bardell, I have made up my mind." 

" Dear me, sir ! " exclaimed Mrs. Bardell. 

" You'll think it not very strange now," said the amiable Mr. Pick- 
wick, with a good-humored glance at his companion, "that I never 
consulted you about this matter, and never mentioned it till I sent 
your little boy out this morning— eh ? " 

Mrs. Bardell could only reply by a look. She had long worshiped 
Mr. Pickwick at a distance, but here she was, all at once, raised to a 
pinnacle to which her wildest and most extravagant hopes had never 
dared to aspire. Mr. Pickwick was going to propose — a deliberate 
pl aij5 too — sent her little boy to the Borough to get him out of the 
wa y — how thoughtful — how considerate ! 

"Well," said Mr. Pickwick, "what do you think?" 

"0, Mr. Pickwick," said Mrs. Bardell, trembling with agitation, 
" you're very kind, sir." 

" It'll save you a good deal of trouble, wont it ? " said Mr. Pick- 
wick. 

'" 0, I never thought any thing of the trouble, sir," replied Mrs. 
Bardell; "and of course, I should take more trouble to please you 
then than ever ; but it is so kind of you, Mr. Pickwick, to have so 
much consideration for my loneliness." 

"Ah, to be sure," said Mr. Pickwick; "I never thought of that. 



HUMOROUS STYLE. 387 

When I am in town you'll always have somebody to sit with you. 
To be sure, so you will." 

"I'm sure I ought to be a very happy woman," said Mrs. Bardell. 

"And your little boy — " said Mr. Pickwick. 

"Bless his heart," interposed Mrs. Bardell, with a maternal sob. 

"He, too, will have a companion," resumed Mr. Pickwick, "a 
lively one, who'll teach him, I'll be bound, more tricks in a week 
than he would ever learn in* a } r ear." And Mr. Pickwick smiled 
placidly. 

" you dear! " said Mrs. Bardell. 

Mr. Pickwick started. 

"0 you kind, good, playful dear," said Mrs. Bardell; and without 
more ado, she rose from her chair and flung her arms around Mr. 
Pickwick's neck, with a cataract of tears and a chorus of sobs. 

" Bless my soul ! " cried the astonished Mr. Pickwick ; " Mrs. Bar- 
dell, my good woman — dear me, what a situation — pray consider, 
Mrs. Bardell, don't — if anybody should come — " 

"0 let them come!" exclaimed Mrs. Bardell. frantically; "I'll 
never leave you — dear, kind, good soul;" and, with these words, 
Mrs. Bardell clung the tighter. 

"Mercy upon me," said Mr. Pickwick, struggling violently, "I 
hear somebody coming up the stairs. Don't, don't, there's a good 
creature, don't." But entreaty and remonstrance were alike unavail- 
ing, for Mrs. Bardell had fainted in Mr. Pickwick's arms, and before 
he could gain time to deposit her on a chair, Master Bardell entered 
the room, ushering in Mr. Tupman, Mr. "Winkle, and Mr. Snodgrass. 

Mr. Pickwick was struck motionless and speechless. He stood, 
with his lovely burden in his arms, gazing vacantly on the coun- 
tenances of his friends, without the slightest attempt at recognition 
or explanation. They, in their turn, stared at him, and Master Bar- 
dell, in his turn, stared at every body. 

_ The astonishment of the Pickwickians was so absorbing, and the 
perplexity of Mr. Pickwick was so extreme, that they might have 
remained in exactly the same relative situation until the suspended 
animation of the lady was restored, had it not been for a most beau- 
tiful and touching expression of filial affection on the part of her 
youthful son. Clad in a tight suit of corduroy, spangled with brass 
buttons of a very considerable size, he at first stood at the door 
astounded and uncertain ; but by degrees the impression that his 
mother must have suffered some personal damage pervaded his par- 
tially developed mind, and considering Mr. Pickwick the aggressor, 
he set up an appalling and semi-earthly kind of howling, and butting 



f 



388 SCIENCE OF ELOCUTION". 



forward with his head, commenced assailing that immortal gentleman 
about the back and legs with such blows and pinches as the strength* 
of his arm and the violence of his excitement allowed. 

''Take this little villain away," said the agonized Mr. Pickwick, 
"he's mad." 

" What is the matter ? " said the three tongue-tied Pickwickians. 

:i I don't know," replied Mr. Pickwick, pettishly. " Take away the 
boy, (here Mr. Winkle carried the 'interesting boy, screaming and 
struggling, to the farther end of the apartment.) Now help me to 
lead this woman down stairs." 

"0 I am better now! " said Mrs. Bardell, faintly. 

"Let me lead you down stairs," said the ever-gallant Mr. Tupman. 

" Thank you, sir, thank you ! " exclaimed Mrs. Bardell hysteri- 
cally. And down stairs she was led accordingly, accompanied by her 
affectionate son. 

" I cannot conceive," said Mr. Pickwick when his friend returned, 
M I cannot conceive what has been the matter with that woman. I 
had merely announced to her my intention of keeping a man-servant 
when she fell into the extraordinary paroxysm in which you found 
her. Very extraordinary thing." 

"Very," said his three friends. 

" Placed me in such an extremely awkward situation," continued 
Mr. Pickwick. 

" Very," was the reply of his followers as they coughed slightly, 
and looked dubiously at each other. 

This behavior was not lost upon Mr. Pickwick. He remarked 
their incredulity. They evidently suspected him. 

'•There is a man in the passage now," said Mr. Tupman. 

" It's the man that I spoke to you about," said Mr. Pickwick ; "I 
sent for him to the Borough this morning. Have the goodness to call 
him up, Snodgrass." 



THE END. 









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